'Disabled children' is now used to refer collectively to such children and means they are more disabled by the barriers that exist in society than by any impairment they might have.
'Impairment' is used to refer to the physical, emotional or intellectual condition that affects a child or adult's ability to perform and makes them different from accepted norms. But before you start talking about a child, stop and think. Is it really necessary to label that child? Could you just say, for example, 'One of the children coming tomorrow uses a wheelchair', or, 'Jonathan may not always want to join in the games', or 'Hugh needs you to listen very carefully when he speaks'. If you have to mention the impairment, it is better to say, for example, a child with Down's Syndrome, rather than 'a Down's child' as the individual child is always more important than the impairment.
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