Disability Self Concept Paper

A). Self- concept is defined as the multidimensional structure of identity that includes self-esteem, group identity and self-efficacy. Disability self-concept incorporates these ideas, but encompasses its own concepts including disability self-efficacy and sense of disability identity. The study focused on the idea that individuals with a congenital disability would have more developed self-concept than those that lived with an acquired disability. In the end, the study concluded that participants with a congenital disability had a higher satisfaction with life, disability identity, and disability self-efficacy, which all integrate with the idea of disability self-concept.
B). Scholars suggest that the concept of disability should be considered within the minority model, due to the fact that people who live with disabilities share similar stigmas with other minority groups including prejudice and marginalization. Also, it allows researchers to identify and utilize a greater amount of literature that can be applied to disability
I believe that there is a critical period for optimal adaptation to disability. I believe that the critical period starts from birth and continues based on developmental milestones within the first few years of life. The critical period for optimal adaptation to disability depends on the disability that develops. I think that a child that losses the ability to hear before the milestone of language acquisition will adapt the same as a child who was born deaf. However, a child that loses the ability to hear at the age of five would have a more difficult time adapting to the new disability. The same scenario can be applied to a child that has a spinal cord injury and loses the ability to walk before they reach the milestone of taking their first steps. Instead of analyzing the child’s ability to adapt, I think a stronger influence is the parent’s acceptance and coming to terms of the child’s development of a disability after