Children with disabilities: Special message to parents

Children with disabilities are just like any other children. They need love, affection and attention from their parents, friends and other people. On a sad note some parents have not done their divine duty, of loving and caring for such children. I have come across situations, where children with disabilities, like the deaf, physically handicapped, hydrocephalus, celebral palsy, and many others, have been hid in bedrooms, not allowing people to see them. This is very wrong and unjust to your kids. The fact that God gave you such a child, there must be a purpose, all you need to do is accepting that angel, and loving it with all your heart. The best gift apparent one can give his or her disabled child, is wholesomely accepting him or her, regardless of the nature or extent of the disability. Some parents have gone ahead to isolate their disabled children, by taking them to far away schools. It is not bad to look for a special needs school for your child, but make sure you visit them, and give them the required facilitation. It is also good to bring them back home, at least in the middle of the term, to catch up with the home environment. I have seen disabled children, functioning well in all spheres, given a favorable environment. There are certain occupational programs, and interventions, that can enhance their functionality, mostly if it is a mobility disability. Children have an advantage that, their bones are still soft, so with consistent occupational interventions and exercises, some disabilities can be minimized and at times eliminated for good. For example, children with clubfeet can be helped with specifically designed shoes, by a physiotherapist. These shoes keep on conditioning the foot, back in its normal shape, through pressing it, in away that moulds it well. There are other medical interventions, which can be employed on to children with mobility disabilities, for instance surgeries. These can be done to complicated disabilities like hydrocephalus, which is the situation when a child’s head swells; this is due to accumulation of water in the head. It can be reversed through, an expert drawing a certain tube, which sucks out the fluids, from the child’s head. Slowly by slowly the head reduces in size until it normalizes. Other deformities like clubfeet can also be rectified by surgery. The effects of sight disabilities, like blindness, can be minimized by training the child in Braille, which is a writing format for the blind. Sign language can also do the same for the verbally handicapped. All the above interventions into a child’s plight can be possible if there is love between the parent, and the affected child, so I appeal to all parents to accept and love their disabled children, as opposed to subjecting an environment of stigma to them. How ever, they should not be over pampapered, which at times makes them dull, failing to fight on their own, to over come their disabilities, and its effects. Ends