Though Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter is a work of fiction, members of several minoritized communities continue to suffer the sting of metaphoric stigmata forced onto their skin, birth sex, sexual and gender identities and expressions, religious beliefs and affiliations, countries of origin and linguistic backgrounds, disabilities, ages, and so on.
It calls on governments to prioritise the needs of the most marginalised children – the poor, girls, ethnic and linguistic minorities, children with disabilities and those living in conflict zones.
Place of residence, disability and ethno-linguistic background also present challenges.
One of the challenges encountered in Cambodia pertained to translating assessment instruments from English to Khmer, and especially finding linguistic equivalents for the concepts of impairment and disability.
Evidence shows that the most disadvantaged children – their disadvantage due to poverty, ethnic and linguistic minority status, gender discrimination, remoteness, disability, violence, and HIV/AIDS status – experience the most dramatic gains from good quality Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs.
Focusing instead on disability, Nordenfelt then makes a linguistic move.
Early evaluation and prevention of hearing impairment in childhood are essential, because hearing impairment can have severe adverse effects on speech, behavior, linguistic understanding, and language acquisition, contributing to global disability and mortality.
Among the most excluded are children with disabilities, children from ethnic and linguistic minorities, those from the poorest families, from rural areas, from migrant families and working children.
Among the most voiceless in the region are children with disabilities, children from ethnic and linguistic minorities, from the poorest families, from rural areas, from migrant families and working children.
Outcome measures were divided into 1) Medical, e.g. mortality, major disabilities, anomalies, learning disabilities; 2) Psychometric, e.g. development of the linguistic, cognitive and motor skill as assessed by standardized tests; 3) Achievement based, e.g. school performance, education, and work status; and 4) behavioral and social parameters.
