Room 3 - Delivery Room (Section 11 of 12)
Section 11 - Cultural background
Description of cultural background
The Curriculum Room defined a mobility and independence curriculum which sought to address the mobility and independence needs of children with a visual impairment. It emphasised that the curriculum must be set within the child’s social context, which is underpinned by their cultural and religious background. Therefore, professionals must provide mobility and independence education content and delivery that is sensitive and relevant to all the children with whom they work. We would highlight points made elsewhere in this resource as having relevance here:
- Importance of family / parental involvement.
- Importance of making the mobility and independence programme relevant and meaningful.
- Importance of the social context in which the child operates, irrespective of how similar or different this is to that of the mobility and independence educator.
The professionals interviewed in the research were responsible for designing individual mobility and independence programmes relevant to the needs of a diverse population. Therefore it is not surprising that some respondents who did work with culturally diverse groups stated that they had never experienced any difficulties in providing for their mobility and independence needs. This emphasises that meeting these needs does not require providing different services but the ability to be sensitive to the child's home environment and to be flexible in how we deliver mobility and independence education. Of key importance here is that mobility and independence educators should have the ability to recognise when they must modify their practice and consult the child and their family in order to devise ways in which this should be done.
Activity 25
Write down 3 examples from your own experience of how practices are (or might need to be) adapted for a child from an ethnic minority background. You can then compare these with the examples below identified in the research project.
Examples identified from the research include the following:
When in doubt over activities or the level of independence to work towards, the MO seeks additional consent from parents for particular activities, progressing only if consent is obtained. BIRMINGHAM
There is a need to talk to parents to avoid imposing skills that are not relevant to their children’s culture. Many reluctant parents can be persuaded to allow their child to learn certain skills if their confidence is increased or if the need/benefit is explained to them in a sensitive manner. MISE GROUP, ROCHDALE, ROTHERHAM, LEICESTER
The curriculum should be delivered using resources and in contexts that the child is familiar with and which the child would use at home. For example, foods and utensils used in kitchen skills, clothes in dressing skills, and the types of shops visited in shopping skills. VARIOUS SOURCES
The curriculum needs to teach skills in the way that the child would use those skills at home. For example, toileting and eating skills. VARIOUS SOURCES
Importantly, these are examples of good practice in all contexts and not just of relevance to particular ethnic groups. Additionally, the service in which the mobility and independence educator operates should provide the mechanisms to enable this. Examples include:
In cases where the parents do not speak English as their first language, interpreters can be used for effective communication between the service and the family. ROTHERHAM, MISE GROUP
A social services team that has both male and female rehabilitation officers, swap clients if any difficulties arise due to the gender of the RO. CORNWALL
A member of the voluntary organisation’s rehabilitation team is Asian. He works with children with a similar background if it is deemed useful. LEICESTERSHIRE
A service which only has access to one male MO, has a third person to accompany the child whilst on a mobility lesson if necessary – often a teaching assistant. COVENTRY
The SEN Code of Practice makes general but useful recommendations in the context of SEN identification and assessment, which can be used in this context. “It is necessary to consider the child within the context of their home, culture and community. Where there is uncertainty about an individual child, schools should make full use of any local sources of advice relevant to the ethnic group concerned, drawing on community liaison arrangements wherever they exist.” (DfES, 2001b, 5:15).
Recommendations based upon good practice
Activity 26
We present below a number of recommendations which arose from good practice identified in the M&I research project in relation to the cultural background of children with visual impairments. You should read each of these carefully, and then compare them with the practice within your own service, or a service known to you.
The mobility and independence policy should make reference to the needs of children and families from ethnic minority groups. The specific content of this will depend upon the communities being served. In particular, there should be policies in place for the following:
- Ensuring that all professionals are aware of and sensitive towards cultural differences that may affect mobility and independence education content and delivery.
- A willingness to work with members of the extended family where appropriate.
- Written information provided to all families should be clear. This is particularly important for parents or carers who are not familiar with the English education system and/or for whom English is an additional language.
- Services need to have in place arrangements for professional interpreters should a family require the facility.
- The mobility and independence policy needs to address how the service will respond to a request for the mobility and independence educator to be the same gender as the child.
Useful links / resources
The SEN Code of Practice (DfES 2001b) can be downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat document, or follow links from The Department for Education and Skills.
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