Special Needs Child
The term "Special Needs Child" is usually used to describe a child who may face more challenges than a typical child, and these challenges could last for a lifetime. The child has different goals, and needs extra support to meet social, emotional, medical and academic milestones. The challenges the child faces can be physical or mental, but often require medical or professional assistance and observance. Sometimes the child is born with these challenges and sometimes they are acquired or developed.
Some of the Physical Challenges include:
Heart disease, Pre-maturity, Visual impairment or Blindness, Hearing impairment or Deafness, Albinism, Cancer, Epilepsy, Chronic Asthma, Diabetes, Obesity, Multiple Sclerosis, Dwarfism, Food Allergies, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome.
Some Emotional/Behavioral Challenges include:
Bi-polar, dyslexia, Attention Deficit Disorder, Oppositional Defiance Disorder
Families of special needs children face emotional and financial challenges, they have to deal with various emotions like grief, a sense of loss, anger or denial. They have to ensure that the child receives appropriate care, and gets acceptance within the family, extended family, as well as the school and community at large. Their expenses are huge, and time is never enough, some have to reduce working hours or leave work completely to be able to care for the child, further reducing their income. Medical expenses are a daily need, from something as simple as a pain reliever to high-cost medication, as well as procedures and surgeries.
A major part of their energy goes into caring for the child: taking care of the child's daily basic needs (feeding, cleaning, ensuring the child is comfortable), making sure the child meets all doctor's appointments, gets special developmental activities, and lots more.
Sleep is a luxury for such families, because parents and care-givers can only sleep when the child sleeps, and sometimes, the child doesn't sleep, and by morning there are so many other things that needs to be done, so sleep is out of the question. They have to work together to keep each other strong, effective communication helps - both parents will need to talk about their fears and expectation, but most importantly they need to talk about the good moments they have with the child.
The Community has to give support to Special Families, this helps reduce the weight. If you have a friend or a neighbor with a Special Needs Child, get some knowledge about the condition of the child so you can offer appropriate and needed assistance. Don't assume its rude to talk about the child, Special Parents LOVE to talk about their child as well, so ask about how the child is improving, offer to help stay with the child for a short period, 30 minutes is like a whole lifetime to a Special Parent, you can even read or play games with the child, and if you have children their age, have them visit often.
Offer regular friendship, they need regular human interaction - trending news, gossip, everything, it helps build the right positive attitude needed to keep going on. You may even help to reduce some of their cost; offering to take them for their next doctor's appointment will save them some money for transportation, you could even organize a fund raiser within the community to educate other members of the community about the child.
One of the best gift you can give a Special Parent, is some time to sleep! Trust me on this, that's the one thing they cannot buy.
If you are a Parent of a special needs child, you need to be patient - patient with yourself first, then patient with the child and then with others around. It is not what you hoped for, but you will have to accept the situation, educate yourself on the specific needs of your child, then help your child achieve their full potential. You will have to adjust some of your routines and expectation - everyday brings new hopes and expectation - it is important that you give it your best, and know that you are not alone! You are doing great! Find out if there are any support groups in your area so you can join, it will help you meet other people facing some of the issues you face and get some tips and encouragement.
Find time for your spouse, for your other children, but most especially, find time for yourself. A five to 10 minutes nap may seem like nothing, but it will give you more energy. Try to eat healthy food so you give your body the strength to keep going. Find a handcraft that you can do to keep your mind refreshed, take your child for a walk in the park and read some fun colorful books, watch a cartoon together, play soothing music, take some tea with biscuits, eat some chocolate, you can even make a visit to the hospital a game of counting cars or trees, or the number of leaves painted on the curtain. Don't allow the weight of it all rest on you.
And yes, its very ok to cry, crying helps you feel better, find someone you can speak with and share your experiences with, you may not know it but you are an inspiration to someone who is facing some form of challenge or the other.
Extra-Special Mother's Day 2019
Even though the condition may be the same, every child is different, so we need to understand the uniqueness of each of these little angels. Through no fault of theirs they are who they are, and we love them unconditionally.
Mothers' Day is on Sunday, May 12th 2019 and we will like to receive all donations on or before Friday, May 3rd, 2019. We need handmade hats, socks and other clothing accessories, as well as healthy skincare products.
You can also donate yarn, or help us procure yarn so we use it to produce this product. Let's make this a memorable day for Extra-Special Mothers.
Check our Social media accounts, we teach handcrafting in clear indigenous languages on our YouTube channel. Click the links below to view our pages.
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