“Using Visuals to Communicate with Children is Extremely Important” Prof. Dr. Arzu Özen stated that children with special needs can show very different inadequacies from each other and said, “Children can show very different disabilities such as vision, hearing, behavioral problems, intellectual disability, autism, and spectrum disorders. This example could go even further. It is extremely important to show the necessary interventions and the necessary behavior patterns, taking into account the characteristics of each disability group. Behaviors such as giving instructions different from those with normal development, that is, children with typical development, to these children much shorter and more clearly, and perhaps asking permission from them before touching them, should be done. Since these children are not able to express themselves yet, we can benefit a lot from visuals. Again, in relation to this issue, it is extremely important to use visuals to communicate with children.” "Children Should Be Given Positive Discrimination” Assist. Prof. Özge Sırma Gezer stated that children's rights are not a concept completely independent from human rights and added the following: “First of all, as with every human being, rights such as life and protection of physical integrity are also valid for children, but apart from this, there are rights regulated by contracts to which children are protected in particular, and to which we are a party. It is also important for the child to be taken into account as an individual, to have a say as an individual in the decisions made about them, in matters that concern them, and to apply for their opinion if they are old enough to perceive it. We can say the following about the earthquake; since we are a party to international conventions, our legislation is under constitutional guarantee. We have a children's legislation that is secured in terms of international law and rights. There is no problem with this, but there have been problems in practice and they continue to happen. At this point, I think that we can reduce this to a minimum if the practitioners perform the law without leaving the legal ground and in compliance with the legal rules. One of the most important issues regarding children is, of course, positive discrimination in terms of them. In other words, it is very important that we first take children under protection in disaster situations and provide their basic needs." |