Children with Special Needs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Their Needs and Rights

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in the process of developing and modernising its organisations to meet and cope with the challenges posed by national and international changes. Child and family issues have become an integral part of the Kingdom strategies, vision and policies. There is a lack of comprehensive research that focuses on children with special needs rights and needs in Saudi Arabia and the role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in meeting and protecting their rights. This research represents the first research in this area. The research aims to examine the rights and needs of children with special needs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Extensive quantitative and qualitative data collected from Saudi Arabia children special needs sector using semi-structured questionnaires, focus groups and in-depth interviews. The collected data analysis with outcome of the literature survey used to discuss the main outcome of the research. A number of conclusions have been drawn from this research. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken several steps towards ensuring children with special needs rights and needs such as the introduction of inclusion of children with special needs with the main stream primary school education. However, the child with special needs in the Kingdom is still in its early stage in the Kingdom. The Saudi parents with children with special needs under stress due to a lack of appropriate policies and guidelines for their children with special needs. The research has identified social barriers as one of the main obstacles for children with special needs rights and needs. The research also provides practical recommendation for prompting children with special needs in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.