Health and Wellbeing in Childhood

For many years, researchers, educators and medical/health professionals have debated the relative influence of nature (biology) versus nurture (the social environment) in children’s health and development. Those who emphasise the importance of biological factors are guided by a model of health known as the medical model. Within the medical model, disability is regarded as ‘a problem of the person, directly caused by disease, trauma or other health condition, which requires medical care’ (World Health Organization [WHO], 2001, p. 15). Those who emphasise the importance of the environment/context are guided by a social model. Within the social model of health, disability is regarded as ‘a complex collection of conditions, many of which are created by the social environment’ rather than an individual attribute (WHO, 2001, p. 18). These two models of health and disability differ in their identification of where the problem lies (the individual or the environment), differ in how they perceive it should be addressed (medical care/social action) and by whom (health professionals/society). However, very often both medical needs and social needs must be considered.