Special Needs Children

All children are special but sometimes we are blessed with “very special needs” children. Special needs is a term used when a child is affected with mental or physical disabilities. Under the name of special needs is an array of different diagnosis. It can range from learning disabilities to severe mental retardation, from panic attacks to very serious psychiatric problems. The diagnoses for special needs are just as vast as the problems a child can have. The diagnosis of each problem is helpful to the parent caring for the child in aquiring services they need to help themselves, as well as the child. A parent with a special needs child will always mourn for what their child could have been. It is a loss that is not accepted easily by many parents but they do accept it and strive to make their child’s life as fulfilling as it can possibly be.

There are many faces to special needs. A child can suffer from ADHD, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Sensory Integration Dysfunction and Tourettes, yet this is only some aspects of special needs. Each child need to be assessed on their own with help that is tailor made for their specific problem. Each child will have certain disabilities and abilities and this is what is needed to be understood before these children can be given the help they need. Every parent needs to know how to be very creative with their children and most parents with special needs do know better than anyone what pleases their child and what doesn’t.

If you have a child with Developmental disabilities they can be the most devastating to any family. The parents have a struggle to get help they need as well as seeing to their child in the home. It can tear a family apart or bring it closer together. This child is not going to go away and no parent would want them to so they have to learn how to” fight the fight” to get what their child deserves as they grow. They have to deal with therapy, schooling and many more aspects in life for that special child that a parent with a “normal” child will never have to do.

Having a grandson that is special needs has given me the gift of insight to the struggle these parents have to face. The struggle is not an easy one. Our daughter faces struggles every day and the hardest of all the struggles is that ,a child that is 16 years in age but has the mental capability of a 6 year old, is not easy to handle.

There are daily tantrums which at times turn violent but throughout all of this she still fights for all his rights and sees that he gets what he deserves both in school and at home, most of all he knows he is loved.

Regardless of what a child is diagnosed with the parents of these children do have a common link and that is planning for an uncertain future while doing their best to make sure their children are getting the best they can get out of the present. The parents have to be the most dedicated, compassionate, stubborn, resilient parents that are on this earth. They have to be they are fighting for their child’s life. For more information on ODD and other special needs go to this link.