BCIFV home > Media Releases > April 1, 2000

For Immediate Release
Contact: The Person Within Project at 604-669-7055
April 1, 2000

Workshop on abuse of children with disabilities
has broad implications, says special-ed pioneer

Understanding emotional abuse of children with disabilities
can improve overall understanding of this hard-to-grasp form of abuse

Since the turn of the last century, increasing attention has been paid to the effects of child abuse. Public awareness has evolved from the obvious (physical abuse) to the tabu (sexual abuse) to the passive (neglect). Now public understanding is expanding to include emotional abuse.

'Emotional abuse is well recognized as part and parcel of every type of abuse,' says retired UBC professor of special education, Sally Rogow. What is less well recognized is that it is particularly problematic for children with disabilities, who may be emotionally abused even as their physical needs are being well addressed.

'When we treat children with disabilities only as 'medical cases', we demean, devalue, and obscure their needs for acceptance as individuals' says Rogow. 'When the environment we create deprives the child of emotional support and nurturance and focuses only on characteristics of disability and control of behavior, the child is being deprived. Treatment that neglects the emotional and social needs of children is abusive.'

Rogow is the Director of The Person Within, a project designed to provide public education about the symptoms and consequences of emotional abuse of children with disabilities. Consisting of a video, workshop, and handbook, The Person Within targets parents, caregivers, and professionals who come into contact with children with disabilities in their work, such as teachers, physicians, and social workers.

'The goal of The Person Within is to teach strategies to prevent emotional abuse and neglect by focusing on the social and emotional needs of children and creating environments that optimize personal and social development,' says Rogow. The Person Within video blends the perspectives of parents who are raising or have raised children with disabilities today with those of professionals who've devoted their careers to working with people with disabilities and those of people with disabilities whose own experiences of have made them into disability activists.

The concept for The Person Within originated with Rogow, who was UBC's first recipient of a doctorate in special education more than 30 years ago. Her pioneering efforts since then have included the creation of a graduate program to prepare resource teachers to work with students who are blind, visually impaired, or multiply disabled. Graduates of this program currently work in all Canadian provinces, Washington state, and other countries as far afield as Norway. 'The program has made it possible for BC to devleop a comprehensive model of school-based services,' says Rogow.

Rogow also has written several books and many articles, and recently completed research into the treatment of children with disabilities in Nazi Germany. Her concept for The Person Within came to the attention of the BC Institute Against Family Violence through her daughter's involvement with BCIFV. After several years of planning, fundraising, and production, the project came to fruition last year.

'Working with children with disabilities has been my life's passion,' says Rogow. 'Yet nothing would delight me more than knowing that The Person Within improved not only the lives of children with disabilities, but also - by broadening our understanding of the effects of emotional abuse and our efforts to prevent it - the lives of all children. To me, this would be one of many uncounted ways that children with disabilities enrich our world.'

To contact Sally Rogow or for information about The Person Within, contact the BCIFV, 604-669-7055 or www.bcifv.org.