Children and young people can experience prejudice and discrimination in many ways. Prejudice is a cultural attitude which stereotypes individuals or groups because of their cultural, religious, racial, or ethnic background in a negative way. Prejudice and discrimination are aimed at both the individual and societal levels. After the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, our children are still growing up in a society where prejudice and intolerance is still happening.
Although laws have been put into place and many attitudes have changed, discrimination based on racial, ethnic, and religious grounds remains a part of daily lives for children and families resulting in bullying, which can ruin their lives in the present and for the future. There are many other reasons why children and young people are discriminated against because they don’t fit in with what others see as ‘normal’. Racial discrimination This happens because the child’s/young person’s skin happens to be a different colour.
Disabilities Whether the disability is physical, mental or sensory, the child/young person will suffer from discrimination. Illness This could be any illness, diabetes where the child/young person may need to inject themselves, epilepsy, sickle cell or even a mental illness. Physical disfigurement The child/young person may have some sort of disfigurement whether on their face or other part of their body. Sexuality It can be very difficult for a young person to admit to their sexuality due to the prejudice and discrimination. Unit 204 2. 1
The Term Paper on Support Children & Young People’s Health And Safety
1.Understand how to plan and provide environments and services that support children and young people’s health and safety 1.1Describe the factors to take into account when planning healthy and safe indoor and outdoor environments and services The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 covers many health and safety legislations in England and Wales. These include, RIDDOR, COSHH, First Aid, Fire ...
Equality, diversity and inclusion in work with children and young people Religion Regardless of what the religion is the child/young person will have discrimination towards them because of this. Travelers Some cultures do travel and the child has to move from school to school and make new friends, again this is different from the ‘norm’. This can sometimes happen to children/young people who have parents in the forces too. Single parents Some families only have one parent whether it’s the mum or the dad. Not like ‘normal’ families so another reason for prejudice and discrimination.
Working parents Some parents work long hours and this could mean that though don’t do the school run or can’t turn up on days like sports day etc. This can work in the opposite way too when parent’s don’t work and possibly stay at home claiming benefits. Learning abilities Children/young people do learn at different rates, some are very fast and pick up things quickly and others are a little slower. Language Some children/young people don’t have English as their first language and will speak differently with an accent. Siblings Some children have lots of siblings, others have none, some are twins, triplets etc. all of this isn’t ‘normal’.
The older sibling may have been better academically so the younger sibling is always being compared. Unit 204 2. 1 Equality, diversity and inclusion in work with children and young people Body image People are all built differently whether they are tall, short, fat, slim etc. Diets Some children/young people have different dietary requests, this could be because they are vegetarians, vegans etc. Age You can be discriminated against for being too old or too young. Area in which you live in This can play a big part as there could be prejudice and discrimination because you live in a rural area, a suburban area, a poor area and even a rich area.
