Growing up with disability in Norway - children's participation in school and leisure time Professional Practice and Children’s Participation Research Conference, 20 April 2012 Christian Wendelborg Research leader, Diversity and Inclusion, NTNU Samfunnsforskning AS

Agenda  Growing up with disability in Norway  About the project Background and setting  Participation in day-care and school life  Are disable children attending mainstream or segregated educational facilities?  Do disable children participate in ordinary classrooms together with their peers?  Do this change as the children grows older  Participation in leisure activities

Growing up with disability in Norway  Initiated in 1998 and still running  Professor Jan Tøssebro  Point of departure  Ideology and policy gradually changed from the 1960 and onwards  “Normalization”, “Integration” Deinstitutionalization”  Dismantling of special boarding schools  From centralised control approach to one of providing support within a family framework  Disabled children growing up after the 1990s were the first generation to grow up “after normalisation”  How is it to grow up for children with disabilities and their families “after normalisation”?

Participation  Participation on arenas  Presence at the same arenas as their peers  Participation in activities  Social participation  social dimension of inclusion, underlining the importance of positive social interaction; acceptance, the perception of acceptance, and social relationships/friendships

Participation with peers in school

 Children with disabilities participate seldom with their peers at school  Children with disabilities often get their education elsewhere than their peers

Disable children's participation in social activities  Children with disabilities participate less in social activities with peers than other children  A decrease in social participation is especially pronounced during the transition to secondary school  Disable youth report that organized leisure activities is not important, this may reflect :  Social and physical barriers  Stereotypes and prejudice  Lack of knowledge  Youth participate through technology - but not all

Participation in leisure time is dependent of participation in school  Leisure activities are often organized and spring out of the school’s structure and framework  Participation in school is important for participation in leisure activities  Educational arrangements predict social participation in leisure time and loneliness  Present educational arrangements may hinder social participation with peers  Transportation to/from school Excluded from making informal appointments on the way home  Children who are marginalized in school less peer contact outside of school, because there is an overlap in social relations in school and leisure time

Children's participation  Educational arrangements in regular schools may obstruct the opportunities children with disabilities have for participating and interacting socially during leisure time and may further have a negative impact on their perceived social acceptance and peer intimacy.