Children in South Africa with and without intellectual disabilities’ rating of their frequency of participation in everyday activities

Abstract

In a low-and middle-income country (LMIC) such as South Africa, not much is known about how children with intellectual disabilities (ID) participate in everyday activities, as no studies to date have compared their participation to peers without ID from the same background. Using a newly developed, contextually valid measure of participation, Picture my Participation (PmP), 106 children with (73) and without ID (33), rated their frequency of participation in activities of daily living. Previous international research has established that children with ID tend to participate less frequently than children without ID in everyday activities outside of the school setting. However, much of this research is based on proxy ratings from caregivers rather than children with ID themselves. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests children with disabilities have uniquely different views of their own participation than their caregivers. The existing research evidence is also delimited to studies conducted predominantly in high income contexts (HICSs). Since it is universally acknowledged that participation patterns are affected by the environment, it is important to evaluate the generalizability of the current evidence to LMICs. The current study found that there were many similar patterns of participation between the two groups although significant differences were noted in social, community, leisure and self-care activities. We compare these results to findings from studies conducted in HICs and find that there are similarities but also differences across contexts. This study highlights the importance of gaining a child’s perspective of participation and understanding how intellectual disability can affect participation relative to peers without ID in LMICS.