Helping Families
This website aims to help parents and siblings of special needs children by finding ways to cope and relate to others. Please take a look around and leave here with useful tips and helpful hints to help you through your struggle.
What is a "Special Needs" Child?
Special needs children are children that have a need that is different from normal children. Ranging from autism, to being deaf, to having cancer, or being disabled, special needs children require special attention and a large amount of dedication (Hallahan, Kauffman, & Pullen, 2012). Having a special needs child impacts an individual in many different ways. The amount of stress that a special needs child has on family members is often higher than those that do not have a special needs child (Zaidman-Zait, 2007). Additionally, realization that a parent’s child is disabled is noted to be very stressful for parents (Graungaard & Skov, 2006). Although stress is very common within families with a special needs child, there are also ways to deal with the stressors in everyday life.
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Types of Special Needs
There are several different types of special needs. Below is a list of a few.
Autistic Disorder*: Neurological disorder in which children often seem as though they are in their own world and show little interest in others while lacking social skills. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder*: Difficulty paying attention, staying on task, controlling behavior or being overly active. Cancer**: Uncontrolled growth of cells in the body. Cerebral Palsy*: Caused by abnormality of the brain. Effects brain and nervous system functions including: movement, learning, hearing, and speaking. Deafness/Hearing Loss*: Partial or total inability to hear. Down Syndrome*: When a person is born with an extra chromosome, the body and the brain develop differently than a person with only 46 chromosomes. |
Types of Special Needs Continued
Emotional Disturbance*: Effects the mental process of an individual. Includes: anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and psychotic disorders. Epilepsy*: A brain disorder in which a person has multiple seizures over time. Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)*: Involves a delay in development usually in: imagination, social skills, and communication Speech and Language Impairments*: Involves lack of speaking clearly or being able to communicate effectively. Spina Bifida*: When the backbone and spinal cord do not connect before birth. Traumatic Brain Injury*: Occurs with excessive force is placed on the head and causes the brain to become damaged. Visual Impairments*: Vision loss to the point where a person needs additional resources to assist in seeing if possible. * As referenced on ciccparenting.org ** As referenced on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |