Is Malta ready to give the necessary help and support to children with intellectual disabilities, acknowledging their rights to education?

Abstract

Intellectual disabilities are new to the Maltese population. In fact, this study is devised to look at the attitudes of Maltese people towards children with Intellectual disabilities. The question put forward is, ‘Is Malta ready to give the necessary help and support to children with Intellectual disabilities, acknowledging their rights to education?’. The theoretical framework chosen is Vygotsky’s Sociocultural theory. For this study, a quantitative approach was adopted. The chosen method is a Snowball with a sample of 100 participants. The hypotheses presented are: Maltese people are willing to include and value children with Intellectual disabilities in the community; and Maltese people are willing to help and support children with Intellectual disabilities. Results were collected using closed-ended questionnaires and analysed trough SPSS version 20. Overall, findings show that Maltese people are willing to include children with Intellectual disabilities and that they are willing to help and support both children with Intellectual disabilities and their families.