The socially Disadvantaged child

The socially Disadvantaged child

                The socially disadvantaged children are those who come from socially and economically backward section of the community who cannot profit from school because of deprivation of one sort or another.

                The socially deprived children usually come from communities that have a history of oppression, social stigma or discrimination and are afflicted with backwardness is one or the following areas: economic, racial, geographic, social, cultural or education. The children from interior tribal or rural areas of country where educational facilities have not reached and also those who are coming from urban slums belongs to the disadvantaged category. Typically they are coming from families characterized by low income, inadequate health care, poor housing, neglect, poverty, malnutrition etc.

Characteristics of Socially Disadvantaged Children

The following are the important characteristics of socially disadvantaged children:

1.      Socially deprived children possess low intellectual level. So they lack proficiency in higher form of cognitive learning and transfer.

2.      They show poor academic performance, premature school termination and high drop-out rates.

3.      They show a high index of linguistic disabilities.

4.       They are apathetic, unresponsive and lack initiation.

5.       They have more anxiety, low frustration tolerance, low attention span and distraction in learning.

6.       They have a high sense of avoidance for failure than striving success.

7.       They have poor self-concept and low level of aspiration.

8.       They show belief in external factors like luck, chance, fate etc rather than their own self and activity.

Causes of Cultural Deprivation

                Cultural deprivation arises due to a complex set of condition which create intellectual deficiency in a child. Some of these conditions are attributed to unstimulating environment, lack of verbal interaction with adults, poor sensory experience and other deleterious environmental factors generally associated with poverty, low social status, malnutrition, broken homes , the following are the important reasons which are responsible for making a child culturally deprived:

1.            The lack of educational environment in the home.

2.            The lack of adequate encouragement to go to school.

3.            The lack of good health and proper diet for children.

4.            The lack of sufficient language and reading skills.

5.            Religious or caste prejudices along with sub-cultural and communal conflicts.

6.            Chronic unemployment, social isolation, humiliation and inferiority feeling due to indifference of others.

7.            Poor parents-children relationship.

8.            Social disorganization creating situations for deviant behaviour.