Kiddipedia
By: Steve Wakerley
The impact of bullying can be devastating to the self-esteem and mental health of children, with effects that can last a lifetime. Disturbingly, the incidence of bullying is increased for children with disabilities.
Research has found that 48 per cent of children with disabilities have experienced bullying at school, a statistic that we at Variety – The Children’s Charity of Queensland couldn’t let continue.
To change this horrifying statistic, we have launched Just Like You across Queensland schools, a disability inclusion program that fosters understanding and acceptance to ensure children are treated fairly and are included in everyday life.
The program was created to help kids like Brisbane 10-year-old Brydi Saul, who experienced severe bullying because of her disability and using a wheelchair. As such, Brydi became severely depressed to the point of becoming suicidal.
Born with congenital spinal hemangioma, Brydi required surgery upon birth where doctors removed a large tumour and parts of her spine. Doctors told Brydi’s mum, Toni, that she would never be able to walk or sit up straight – but Brydi slowly defied the odds and was able to move part of her legs and stand with the support of a frame.
Despite living with a disability and her experience with bullying, Brydi has accomplished amazing sporting feats, like being the youngest person to ever finish the OzDay 10km, and is now using her voice to champion our Just Like You school program to tackle bullying towards kids with disabilities.
The program goes into primary schools to show students that their peers with disabilities are in fact, just like them, you or I. We want to make sure that kids living with a disability, like Brydi, feel like they fit in.
We have found that it’s crucial to intervene and educate children, particularly at a young and impressionable age, to show them that disabilities come in all different shapes and sizes whether it is sensory, physical or invisible.
The key to tackling bullying with students at this age is to foster understanding by showing students that disabilities come in all different shapes and teach kids how important and possible it is to include somebody with a disability – whether that be in games on the playground, inviting them to birthday parties, or just any general activities they may be doing in or outside of school.
We’ve seen that students are often not aware of how they can include a student with a disability because they can only see what they can’t do, instead of what they can do. The Just Like You program bridges the gap by teaching students how they can include someone with a disability so that the students are all treated equally – just like them.
The program focuses on celebrating differences, helping students think about their behaviours and the impact they have on others through their own words and actions. By creating a foundation of empathy and inclusiveness, anti-bullying activities can be implemented by schools to further alleviate the prevalence of bullying targeted at students with a disability.
Our program facilitators themselves live with a disability and talk openly about the intricacies of their disabilities, giving students an opportunity to learn and ask questions that they may never have had the opportunity or have been too afraid to ask before. It was extremely important for us to ensure the Just Like You program creates a safe space for students to be open about these discussions and remove the stigma that is often attached to speaking about disabilities.
The Just Like You program works towards creating a foundation of empathy and inclusiveness in primary school students, encouraging them to reflect on their own role in promoting inclusive behaviours in schools, and creating an environment where students respect and care for each other.
Our key objectives of the program are to not only increase inclusive behaviours but increase participation of students with disabilities, to ensure they’re living uninhibited lives within society. We want to start a real societal shift, starting with young kids so that they can help foster a more inclusive society as they grow.
Given adults with disabilities can find it more challenging to gain employment, we want this program to help towards changing that. We hope kids who go through this program might one day be an employer who sees beyond the disability of their potential employee.
The program has already been a roaring success across New South Wales since its inception in 2015, reaching over 69,000 kids in 181 schools, now the Queensland state-first roll out will take the revolutionary disability inclusion program to even more students this year and if funding can be secured, we hope to take it to many more schools in 2022.
The program comprises workshops that are free for schools and align with the national curriculum. It’s about ensuring students receive a holistic education that simultaneously creates safer spaces for children with disabilities.
If your school is interested in booking in the program, they can go to the Just Like You website – https://www.justlikeyou.org.au
And if anyone or any businesses would like to donate to help expand the program, please go to our website www.variety.org.au/qld
References: Studies from Children and Young People with a Disability Australia (CYDA, 2019) have shown that 48% of students with disability surveyed in 2019 experienced bullying at school.
