Disabled Village Children

Disabled Village Children
A guide for community health workers, rehabilitation workers, and families
by David Werner
Updated 2009
paperback
672 pages, illustrated
English ed. ISBN: 978-0-942364-06-4

Disabled Village Children contains a wealth of clear and detailed information, as well as easy-to-implement strategies for all who are concerned about the well being of children with disabilities. This manual, written especially for those who live in communities with limited resources, explains how to create small community rehabilitation centers and workshops run by either disabled people or the families of children with disabilities. More than 4000 drawings and 200 photos make Disabled Village Children understandable to all.

Topics in this new 2009 reprint include:

• identifying primary and secondary disabilities
• skills for daily living
• behavior problems and improvement
• polio, cerebral palsy, juvenile arthritis, muscular dystrophy, and others
• how to build 6 different wheelchairs, using local resources
• fun and useful therapy techniques, such as making fun and educational toys
• playgrounds accessible to all children
• low-cost rehabilitation aids adaptations for home and community.

Related Materials

• Download this book on our Free Downloads page
• Available in Spanish: El niño campesino deshabilitado.
• If you are interested in books regarding children and disability, we encourage you to read more about our books Helping Children Who Are Deaf and Helping Children Who Are Blind.

What people have to say about Disabled Village Children:

"...Disabled Village Children is the benchmark manual on community-based rehabilitation... (Hesperian's) new series of books on early intervention for children with disabilities are beautiful as well as extremely useful."
-USAID

"At the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii, we use Disabled Village Children to teach teachers and family members how to support the related services needs of children with severe disabilities... The book works well for us because it supports simple English with wonderful drawings. Everyone whom we train speaks English as a second language, and everyone appreciates the pictures that illustrate the written concepts. The book clearly explains the most common disabilities and provides good examples of interventions that can be done using locally available materials. We have made wooden and PVC equipment adapted from designs in the book, and used many of the ideas in the book to support the needs of children on very remote islands. The ideas are creative and address basic needs of children with disabilities all over the world."
-Katherine Ratliffe, PhD, PT
Center on Disability Studies, University of Hawaii

"Disabled Village Children is not a book just for children, or just for use in villages, or only for the Third World. This book contains...many thought-provoking rehab ideas which run counter to the traditional Western rehab approach, yet which are eminently appropriate in many areas of the non-Western world."
-Newsletter of the Cross-Cultural and International Physical Therapy Interest Group

"Disabled Village Children is a powerful, engaging, and readable reference for (developing world) health and rehabilitation workers. It provides ideas and techniques relevant for the novice and the veteran, as well as for the interested observer... The power of Disabled Village Children derives from its simplicity as well as from its recurring theme of a "bottom-up" approach to health and rehabilitation in rural communities."
-Marc Krizack
Rehabilitation Consciousness