Multiple disabilities

A multiple disability is the simultaneous presence of several types of disability , e.g. B. the joint presence of a physical disability and a cognitive disability .

People with multiple disabilities often require special care, accompaniment and support for their development from birth. B. is provided through early intervention offers . After starting school, additional special help is often required. These are offered to the affected children partly in special forms of school, partly also in an integrative way in regular schools. In addition to educational staff (teachers), the schools also have nursing staff and medical-therapeutic specialists at their disposal. Often take community service or men and women in vocational preparation Social Year (BSJ) assistance tasks .

The number of children with multiple disabilities has been increasing for several years. At the above-mentioned school types, between 30 and 40 percent of the children studying there are currently multiple disabilities.

The concerns, the realization of which is a goal of people with different multiple disabilities and their families and friends, can be summarized in the guiding principles:

• Social participation instead of care
• Well-considered planning instead of erecting barriers
• Appreciation and respect instead of discrimination
• Integrated participation instead of prenatal selection and social-institutional exclusion

literature

• Erhard Fischer (ed.): Education for children and young people with multiple disabilities . Verlag modern learning / borgmann publishing, Dortmund 2000.