Every other growing child has his needs for which he depends on his parents or caretakers to fulfil. However, some children around us have special needs and require more care.
A special needs child may include any child with Autism, Developmental Delays, Down’s Syndrome, Psychiatric Disorders, or other medical conditions that make him different from the rest. Due to this, such children and adults need an extra amount of special care.
Children with special needs grow up to be adults with special needs, and thus, the term ‘Special Needs’ becomes an umbrella term constituting the specific care protocols for special needs children and adults.
What Challenges do the parents of Special Needs Children and Adults Face?
The parents of special needs children and adults deal with several challenges during the growth and upbringing phases of their child, including:
- Lack of Empathy:
There exist several people who are not understanding towards a child’s unique needs. Unfortunately, people seem to overlook the fact that only a little understanding and support for a special needs person can make him feel included and loved.
- Lack of Accessibility:
Not every place is spacious enough to have installed disability-friendly features to make people with special needs feel welcomed. This makes it quite difficult for the families of these children to visit such places, making them feel left out from the rest of the world. Such families are also unable to enjoy many recreational activities or simply some time out without getting judged or looked down upon with sympathetic eyes.
- Behavioral Issues:
It becomes challenging for the parents to communicate about their child’s behavior with other people in fear of the stigma attached to it. These behavioral issues might include tantrums, mood swings, or hyperactivity. Such behaviors might cause others to become alarmed and react unnecessarily, making these special needs children and adults uncomfortable. Consequently, the
How to Overcome Such Challenges?
Even though the parents of special needs children and adults play a very significant role in making their children feel included wherever they go, there are some other ways to make this work out conveniently, such as:
- Letting Them Take Control:
Parents should encourage their special needs children to make their own choices and perform easy tasks. This slight change of making them work independently would make them feel confident of their abilities, just like other children their age.
- Working in Collaboration:
Instead of becoming the sole caretakers, parents should collaborate with their child’s teachers and therapists. It helps considerably when both the teachers and therapists devise strategies for the parents to deal with the various aspects of their child’s behavior accordingly.
- Involving Siblings:
The parents of special needs children and adults should understand that they were never meant to take up the responsibility of looking after their special needs children by themselves alone. They should also involve their other children in fulfilling this responsibility alongside them. This way, the siblings of special needs children would feel included and develop a sense of responsibility for helping their parents and special needs siblings with their extra needs and care.
- Setting Goals:
The parents of special needs children and adults should find out their child’s interests and motivate them to work. This way, the children learn to compete for their goals and survive through the bumpy ride that this life is.
Individuals with special needs are no less deserving than others. In fact, they are differently-abled and sometimes even more competent than a regular person. All it needs is a bit of care and attention to extract out the best from such children and adults.
