1. You are Superhuman – You are the chosen one, being given a special task by the almighty, a task to raise children with special needs. Every day you have to work with child tantrums, meltdowns, give medication and at times take your child through medical procedures. While you do all this, you have to maintain your calm, stay sane, be patient and empathetic even though at times you could lose it all and this is not really human isn’t it? Well, so consider yourself a superhero and nothing less.

2. Therapy the play way – Often special needs kids do require therapy. But, when you find a therapist, find one who engages the child in a way that the child feels its play and not therapy. The best therapists are known to do so, make therapy play for children. Also, even when the kid is playing it is apparently therapy because, well, play is therapy. The kid explores, plays, learns, has fun and gets better

3. Spend quality time – Though you might be running tight on your daily routines and the added work that comes with raising a special needs kids, you need to find time where you simply sit down, enjoy and bond with your child. Keep aside all the tasks, and snuggle for a while, play with them, go for a walk or a hike, read with them, listen to music with them and just have quality family time. This is definitely going to help them feel more secure and

4. Take Care of yourself – You deserve self-care because you are already doing more and you would be doing so for a long time to come. This is definitely going to take a lot of energy and hence self-care is a priority too. If you are fit can you have that extra energy to take care of your child. So, take care of yourself, have some me time, go for regular health checkups, enjoy a hobby and stay fit.

5. Forgive yourself – You’re already on the multitasking drive and you are bound to create mistakes even though you try to give your best shot. So, when you end up doing a mistake, feeling frustrated or bad about it is not going to work or make you feel better or help make better decisions. So, try to be a little easy on yourself and forgive yourself when the need really be.

Well, these are only a few things of the many others that parents of special needs children need to keep in mind because they are running a different race from other peer parents.

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]]> https://www.vydehischool.com/blog/rehabilitation/10-facts-parents-of-special-needs-kids-should-know/feed/ 0 https://www.vydehischool.com/blog/rehabilitation/india-tops-the-list-of-most-depresses-nations-in-the-world/ https://www.vydehischool.com/blog/rehabilitation/india-tops-the-list-of-most-depresses-nations-in-the-world/#comments Thu, 31 Oct 2019 08:34:51 +0000 https://www.vydehischool.com/blog/?p=1963 Continue reading →]]> A report of 2018 says that India is at the top of the list of most depressed countries. Not a shocker, isn’t it? Though Indians are known to be adjusting people and content by nature, it comes to light that they are the most depressed too. Well, on one side we adjust ourselves easily to anything, be it less finances, bad roads, lack of infrastructure or pretty much anything for that matter. A study by National Care of medical Health (NCMH) around 6.5 % of Indians suffer from a serious mental conditions irrespective of being rural or urban. The government is carrying of awareness programs but there is a scarcity of psychologists and psychiatrists as well as mental health doctors. Even the suicide rate as reported in 2014 was one in 1 lacs has gone up and now the average comes to around 10.9 per lac. Even the average age of suicide is under 44 years of age.

The other countries included in the list include China, Brazil, United States, Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, to name a few. Here’s an overview of the mental health scenario in these countries.

Pakistan – As startling as it may seem, there are only 750 professional psychiatrists as per a report of the year 2012. Furthermore, due to the taboo around mental health most of the cases are not even reported and hence even the exact number of people suffering from mental conditions is not known.

USA – Yes, off-course mental health is a common issues in one of the most powerful nations of the world, United States of America. The reason is again scarcity of mental health professionals and only about 41% of those suffering from these conditions are able to get treated. Apparently, many do not take it seriously and ignore it expecting to get over it without treatment.

China – China is one of the most affected countries for mental health conditions again. Around 91.8 % of the citizens are known to be suffering from one or the other mental condition particularly depression and that they do not bother about getting medical assistance at all. C

Brazil – Another other country to have the most number of depressed people in the world is Latin America. The reason behind it is social conditions like homelessness, poverty, migration issues, violence and more. Hence, most of the population here is under high stress and anxiety.

Indonesia – The figures are lower in Indonesia compared to the others in the list but enough to rate it under the clutches of the mental health disorder monster. As per statistics around 6 percent of the population over 15 years of age suffers from mental conditions.

Well, it’s not that the Government of these countries ain’t swinging into action but its high time even the citizens take mental health as seriously as we take physical health as it is equally helps our over-all wellbeing.

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What is more alarming is The World health organization’s estimate that India could suffer economic losses amounting to 1.03 trillion dollars on account of mental health issues during the period of 2012 and 2030. Another study reveals that around 71% of Indians consider mental conditions as a taboo. The Wall Street Journal in its 2016 report revealed that Indians work for 52 hours every week and its way to high compared to their peers across 25 countries. In Indian working women the rate of psychiatric morbidity is 38% compared to 26% non-working women.

At work there’s a lot of stress resulting from deadline and target achievement, office politics and bullying and then there’s personal issues like finances, relationships and family problems making it a perfect breeding arena for mental health illnesses. Talking about management of mental conditions, there is definitely a way out but it has to be worked upon at a personal as well as a professional level.

Professionally, the employers need to understand that it is as simple as better mental equals to better quality and better productivity. So, there have to be policies put into place and the employees need to be given a healthy working environment.

On a personal basis consulting a good therapist, engaging into hobbies post work, help and support from family besides medication can help in resolving mental health conditions. The most important point to be kept in mind around mental health is that the earlier you work on your condition the better. Hence, early intervention for childhood mental health conditions can work really well for children born with mental health issues and help them improve quality of life.

Well, it’s high time that we focus on our mental health with the same interest as we focus on the bodily health because mental health issues are bound to affect our physical well-being also, without any doubt.

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Having a child with auditory loss is again disastrous news for parents when every parent longs to hear their child call them dad or mom. The ideal solution is to observe and go for expert advice. An early diagnosis could go a long way in helping your child deal with this disability. Hearing aids are the preliminary solutions that could help your child drastically. Other hearing loss treatments for children include cochlear implants that help in development of the language and speech of the child of hearing aids are not so helpful.

Benefits of Early Intervention

Early intervention works well with children having auditory loss issues. If parents follow certain guidelines while communication with their children, this could work wonders for your child in the later years.

1. Make eye contact while talking to your child. If you are not making eye contact, are looking down or doing something else like reading a newspaper then it could be difficult for the child.

2. Keep a distance of around 1-5 meters from your child and face your child. This way your child can see you and read your lips and understand your expressions.

3. Do not talk to your child while chewing or eating. This could confuse your child as he or she would not be able to ready the lips and even the pronunciation could be different for a child wearing hearing aids.

4. Do not let other sounds interfere with your talk when communicating with your child. So, switch off background stuff like TV, music systems, etc., because it would definitely confuse your child.

5. Lastly but most importantly, because your child can’t hear doesn’t mean you shout into them. Talk softly and clearly so they can read you to understand. Shouting wouldn’t be of any use. If your child is facing difficulty understanding, try rephrasing your sentence.

Well, it is difficult to parent a child with auditory loss but if you begin early on and follow the guidelines given above, you should be able to make a notable difference in the life as far as communication is concerned.

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Though she was having a job that paid her well, the incident led her to take a journey within and work around social challenges. As per Sonalee it was never a one day job to start a social foundation and that she had been a witness of many instances that kept fueling her thoughts of starting such an enterprise. As a student, she already had spent over three years volunteering at the Baba Amte Ashram in Mumbai. Besides, she also worked with children living in red light areas of Mumbai through the organization Prerna. All these experiences coupled together made her realize that she needs to do something substantial for children.

Through the Urmi foundation, Sonalee and her team want to create an environment that is adaptive and inclusive for children of special needs and help them grow academically. Her way is to make things easy for these kids. For example, they found that kids with speech disabilities were not able to express their problems to the doctor easily. So, the created digital emojis for them, that include body parts and select expressions. They even provided these signs to doctors of government hospitals so that the kids could communicate with the doctors about their pain easily. Well, this is just the beginning for Sonalee as she plans to open a special education school in the red light area for kids here, first of its kind, as she thinks these kids compared to others are more prone to physical mental or sexual abuse. And to turn this dream into reality she is working with other people and trying to get like-minded ones on board as well.

*Sourced from Internet

Well, parenting a child with special needs is an uphill task. But, with school and community support can be managed in a better way in urban areas. The task becomes really steep when you are in rural or remote areas and it’s not easy for the parents or children. There are a lot more problems that hinder the quality of life and development of children with special needs in rural areas. Here’s a look through some of the main challenges that children with special needs in a rural setting have to face –

Lack of Individual attention – This is one of the most common challenges faced by children with special needs. Obviously, schools with a larger setup have more resources including special education aids that help teachers and special educators work around with special children. While working in rural setups with lack of infrastructure and resources, it is not possible to work with every special child on an individual basis.

Lack of Staff – As rural setups of schools are in remote areas, bringing in professional staff isn’t easy. Staying in such places is rarely a preferred choice. In cities professionals have their own social life at the end of the day or week where they hang out with friends, watch movies together, feel rejuvenated get ready for the next day. But, that’s not the case in rural areas leading to teachers and staff feeling isolated or lonely. Hence, there is scarcity of staff and the existing ones have to shuffle across multiple locations making it exhaustive for them as well.

Lack of Training – A special education needs to be dealt with multiple disabilities at a time. At remote locations, it becomes tougher to deal with it and hence, training the teachers for managing this task properly individual training programs need to be implemented.

Parental Support – Some parents, particularly in rural areas are ignorant about special needs and at times not interested as well in providing the needed support to them. On the flip side, even overtly caring parents can make it difficult for the teachers and educators to work around these children. But, adequate parental support can help make the life of a child with special needs much better and help the kids bloom to their fullest.

Low Packages – While teachers are given good packages in many good schools, specials educators are not paid the same comparatively, while their task is much tougher because they are already dealing with kids who need additional support with learning. This also is a factor that is resulting in scarcity of special educator jobs.

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Anxiety up to a certain level is alright but if anxiety is consistent and keeps on increasing and spreading across areas of life, its time to consult a doctor for the same. Your child could be suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

It is known that between 5% and 10% of the people suffer from anxiety disorders and its more common with kids having ADHD.

Symptoms

Kids with generalized anxiety disorders experience too much of fear or worries often to an immense extent. As a result they are not able to concentrate, are restless, fatigued and suffer from frequent urination, stomach aches as well as sleep difficulties.

The stress and tension are of chronic nature and do interfere and affect various areas as well as the quality of their life.

At times even the child might be able to understand the excessive anxiety issues, but might not be able to control or manage it.

Diagnosis

One of the criteria around the diagnosis of GAD is, the experience needs to last for around six months at least. A trained mental health practitioner will assess the child and work with the child around his/ her anxiety disorders.

Well, apparently GAD is more likely to affect children who have undergone challenging situations in life or have been maltreated are at a higher risk of GAD. Challenges like humiliation, cruelty, and abandonment are a few triggers that already affect adults, then children would obviously be, isn’t it? Even puberty could bring in stressors besides consistent difficulties in relationships socially as well as frustrations and school performance issues as well. Treatment plans are based on diagnosis and differ from individual to individual.

*Sourced from the Internet

These are words of the quintessential modern genius, none other than Albert Einstein. Very rightly so, fairy tales and stories tend to accelerate the growth of the human mind in infancy and early years. They fuel the imagination of children and make them believe in the extraordinary feat the human mind is capable of achieving.

Another similar quote around fairy tales is one of Neil Gaiman– “Fairy tales are more than true not because they tell us that dragons exist but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated.”

So, here’s a list of 10 fairy tales/stories that your child needs to have in his/ her collection.

1. Jungle Book – This book is a truckload of adventures and inventions and is an apt choice to spark and fuel the imagination of your kid. Written by Rudyard Kipling it’s a story of a boy called Mowgli raised by wolves in the woods and his fight with the king of the jungle tiger Sher Khan.

2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Listed in one to the greatest books to have and penned by Mark Twain, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of a rebel and runaway slave who seeks liberation.

   The Lie Tree– Awarded as the winner of overall Cost book Awards recently, it’s a true original and the lead female character of this book could be an apt role model for children while the book a great addition to their collection.

4. Toms Midnight Garden – Written by Philippa Pearce, it’s a story about a kid who goes to stay with his uncle and aunt, but things take a different turn as the clock strikes 13. He finds himself in a little garden with a little girl who comes from a different time zone. This book is sure to leave an impression of a lifetime and is considered to be one of the finest works of children’s literature.

5. Matilda by Roal Dahl – Though there are many books by Roald Dahl which need to be in the must-read list, Matilda is one of the more special ones, for the imaginative capabilities are on full throttle in this emotionally compelling and overwhelming story of a little girl and her struggle for love and escape.

There are umpteen books that your children should read before teenage and the above are just a few of them. Have you made reading a habit for your little ones yet!

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Physical disabilities include conditions like chronic asthma, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and more. Behavioral these include disabilities like bi-polar, ADD, defiance disorder and more. Developmental these include disabilities like dyslexia, autism, Down syndrome, etc. Sensory these disabilities include blindness, deafness, etc.

So, if your child does have a disability then as a parent, knowing the rights of your children is always better. It will definitely help you get help you get your child all the help needed for a better upbringing and education. Early intervention is the key in case of children with special needs.

Neurodevelopmental disorders like ADHD, autism, mental retardation, intellectual disability may tend to make children impulsive, easily bored or frustrated and also pose an issue with concentration. While children with eating disorders like binge eating, night eating, bulimia nervosa will have atypical behavior around their eating or weight. Besides they do tend to possess intense emotions as well as attitudes. Other disorder is the elimination disorder that involves enuresis or bed wetting and related disorders. Then there are children with the affective disorders involving frequent mood swings, consistent sadness, bipolar disorder and depression to name a few. Another less known disorder is Tic disorder leading to sudden body repeated body movements not on purpose or even meaning less sounds known as tics. The sounds do not include sounds like coughing, throat clearance, sniffing or grunting.

In India the most common disabilities include the hearing and vision disabilities. The rural areas have more number of children with disabilities as compared to urban population. The simple reason is lack of adequate medical care in rural and remote areas of India. The state with maximum number of disabled children is Assam while the lowest is Sikkim in India as per records. In villages the even today there are women who give birth with the help of midwives as home. Also, as pediatricians are not available disabilities of children aren’t tended at the right time leading to further damage, as per a renowned medical expert.

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CRITICAL INPUT – Only parents are the ones who know everything about the child, be it physical, mental, social or anything around family history. When it comes to special education, these inputs including the strengths, weaknesses, interests, dislikes and likes and help a lot to devise and upgrade the developmental programs for kids individual and can be more effective as well.

TRANSITION HELP – Meetings to check on the progress of the child from one level to another are held and parents can definitely add the most value to such meetings. With the help of Parental inputs the school and educators can understand the progress of the child and he effectiveness of their support as well as services. Based on the inputs

CLOSE CONNECTION – Obviously, it’s the parents who are the closest to the children. Even if the child is in school for a longtime, the time provided by the educator to each and every one can be counted in just a few minutes as compared to parents, who get to spend a lot of quality time together.

BEST GAURDIANS – Well, who other than a parent could be the best advocate for a child? And who other than the parent would want their child to achieve the best in life? So, it is primarily the responsibility of every parent of a special child to follow their child closely and try to gather as much information as possible about the condition of the child. Also, keep a track of the developmental milestones and keep the records so that you can refer them whenever required.

Well, the importance of parental contribution is the most important when it comes to kids without specials needs but even more relevant when it comes to kids with special needs.

*Sourced from the Internet