Caring For A Special Children With Developmental Disabilities asap.org.in/blog/caring-for-a-special-children-with-developmental-disabilities
Caring and raising kids with any of the developmental disabilities is challenging and often exhausting. A lot many times it could be frustrating and isolating too. With the amount of investment, a caregiver makes with the child in terms of time and energy, it is also incredibly rewarding to watch the child achieve each delayed milestone by overcoming each obstacle or making new friends by developing more social skills, especially when the primary caregiver is also the parent.
While taking care of the child’s needs is of the priority but understating and being cautious of the caregivers physical and mental health also is of utmost importance.
Some of the ways in which the quality of life of a caregiver of a Children With Developmental Disabilities/ Developmental Delays Clarity on the diagnosis : Knowing and understanding what the child’s diagnosis is helps in most of the condition. A clear diagnosis would help to discern what the child is going through and how would the child would be impacted. While getting a diagnosis is important, but caregivers should be cautioned that they should not spend a lot of time in going from one professional to the other because they are not able to come to terms with what the child is going through.
Finalize a team : Children with special needs need specialized assistance. Any intervention with the child also would take time. Therefore, it is helpful to narrow down to one institution or a professional from the respective field who could be the focal point for any guidance. Taking guidance from a trained professional like a developmental pediatrician or a clinical psychologist is always more helpful. Its human nature than we tend to gather talk and get positive reassurance especially when it comes to our children. But in this situation, advise coming from too many people also would be counter effective.
Understanding the needs of the child : 1/3
Knowing what the child is diagnosed is the very first step. In some circumstances, there is one clear diagnosis which could explain the child’s condition and sometimes there could overlapping diagnosis. As, every child is affected in a different way, in both conditions understanding how the child is being impacted and to recognize what the child would need, would be helpful for the child’s development.
Ask for help : When parents are the primary caregivers, they wish to take care to the child completely by themselves. Being a parent in itself comes with surprises each day. Parenting a child who has special needs, is an unfamiliar terrain. The challenges with such children would be very different. Therefore, it would always benefit to talk to an expert or get another helping hand. A lot of times relatives do not understand as you would understand your child. In such cases it is helpful to connect with parents who are in similar situation and get suggestions. Also, Read : The Importance of Parental Support
Celebrate successes : The journey with your child would be long and lengthy. With you, your child is also making a lot of effort in learning and mastering new skills everyday. Recognizing and appreciating this effort of your child would increase his/her motivation to go on. Every time the child makes a transition to a new appropriate activity, pause, celebrate and be happy for you child’s achievement.
Knowing your own need : Most of the parents feel the responsibility of taking care of the child completely on their own. They tend to forget that they do not have superpowers and they themselves are human being before being a parent. It would of immense help in the child’s developmental process if the parents also start taking care of themselves. By acknowledging what a caregiver can do for a Children With Developmental Disabilities and what an expert like a therapist can do, by taking breaks by asking for help form family and friends and by simply not rushing to get everything done at the same time, would go a long way.
Patience : It’s human tendency to want to get things done as quickly as possible and achieve more and more. This feeling becomes multifold when it comes to our children. Each of their achievement becomes like the achievement of the parents. It would be of great benefit to acknowledge and remind
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oneself that the developmental intervention of the child is a long journey. Keeping patience and giving the intervention process time would have positive results.
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