The study focuses on the empowerment of disabled children at the Community-Based Rehabilitation Center (CBR) in Kubang Pasu, Kedah, Malaysia. The objective of the study is to examine the communication and social skills of children with disabilities attending CBR based on parents' perspective. This study is quantitative in nature where data collection is done using the survey method involving parents/guardians who send their children/wards to CBR. A total of 95 respondents were involved in this study from the 137 trainee population. Findings show that the number of disabled children with a good, moderate and low levels of communication and social skills is almost the same at 35.79%, 32.63%, and 30.53% respectively. It is found that the relationship between age, and communication and social skills of children with disabilities have a moderately positive relationship, where the improvement of skills is aligned with the increment in age. Further, communication and social skills are different for all categories of PWD. Overall, this study found that CBRs are effective in empowering disabled children to participate in formal education.

Children who are separated from their biological families have an unusual life experience compared to their counterparts residing with their biological families. This paper describes children’s psychological affect by measuring their self-expression based on their daily experiences in welfare institutions. A total of 163 children in four private children’s homes completed the Malay version of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) developed by Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener (2009). The results show that more than half of the children (60.1%) had high levels of positive expression, while 63.2 percent recorded intermediate levels of negative expression. In total, only 30.1 percent of the children had high affect balance. Independent sample t-test shows that male children had significant positive expression and higher affect balance compared to their female counterparts. Female children had higher negative expression than male children. Correlation analyses show that no significant relationships can be established between self-expression and the factors of age and length of stay at the private welfare institutions. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) indicates that there was a significant difference in mean affect balance between male and female children while adjusting age and length of stay. This implies that gender is an important factor in the positive expression of children in out-of-home care. Any efforts to help the children feel positive about their living experience should begin by considering their gender.

Adaptive behaviour is a conceptual, practical, and social skill that each individual uses in daily life. This study focuses on the empowerment of adaptive behaviour among children with disabilities in the Pertubuhan Pemulihan Dalam Komuniti (PPDK) or Community Rehabilitation Organisation in the district of Kubang Pasu, Kedah, Malaysia. The objective of the study is to examine the differences in the adaptive skills of children with disabilities based on the category of People with Disabilities (PWDs). This is a quantitative study using a survey method that involves parents or guardians of children at PPDK. A total of 95 respondents were involved in this study from the total population of 137 disabled trainees. The questionnaire was based on and modified from the Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) which covered adaptive behaviours based on motor skills, social and communication skills, personal life skills, and community life skills. The analysis found that motor skills, communication and social skills, and personal life skills are different for all categories of PWDs. Only community life skills are similar for all categories of PWDs. Overall, this study found that PPDK can enable the adaptive behaviour of children with disabilities for participating in formal education.