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.

Vydehi School is offering Sepecial Education School in Whitefield Bangalore

]]> 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.

*Sourced from Internet

Just know about Vydehi School of Rehabilitation

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.

*Sourced from Internet

Just know about Vydehi Rehabilitation School in Bangalore

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.

*Sourced from Internet

Just know about Vydehi Special Education in Bangalore

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

As per this expert communication skills as well as the ability to perceive speech in noise is of great significance in academics. Hence, all children need to pursue music but particularly hearing impaired children need to learn music, singing more so. Another expert who was supervising the study mentioned that even though musical hobbies have great significance they aren’t available to all. She also added that in her country Finland, they do have very high quality of music culture for children.

The study included participation of few children in musical sessions while some did not. The results of the study were published in the Journal of Music perception. The results as per researchers did imply that singing of parents is important. Huotilainen also suggested that the kids that are kept in day care should also be considered for the music sessions and said that as per her opinion music had to be used every day for support learning. She went on to explain how it gives children the possibility to enjoy music, singing and the benefits they bring, she explained.

Well, it is a known fact as on how music has worked wonders as a therapy in more ways than one and hence its use in helping hearing impaired kids does make sense.

Just know about the Vydehi Rehab School in Bangalore

*Sourced from the Internet

Inclusive education is being implemented in various schools in India at partial or complete levels and is proving to be highly beneficial to not only the challenged children but also to the regular or normal children because here is when they learn to live with differences, accept them, adapt themselves and most importantly live in harmony with them.

Here’s a list of few of the umpteen benefits of inclusive education
Improvement in Communication Skills – In an inclusive environment children with special needs get to participate and engage into the same activities together with the normal children. As a result they get to learn from these children which in ultimately helps them improve their social as well as communication skills. The experience is far more enriching because there is sense of equality and respect also while separate classrooms or schools create a sense of biasness. In mainstream classrooms the educational as well as behavioral expectations are higher thus providing an opportunity of learning and developing skills that the kids with special needs can use all through their lives.

Confidence boost for Parents – Parents of disabled children always feel that their children be treated equally and given equal learning environment as well as opportunities. With inclusive classroom setting in place, it’s like a booster for parents of these children. This is the best chance for their kids to learn to live a normal life like their peers.

Benefits to one and all – It’s not only the children with disabilities that benefit from inclusion but the even the able children do. They learn to accept and live in harmony with children with disabilities and also learn to appreciate them. In longer periods they even become friends with children with special needs forming meaningful and life lasting relationships. The normal or general children even help their disabled or challenged peers which also hones their own skills. Even teachers get to teach to a diverse group of students and enhance their teaching skills as well.

Inclusive education is the best of ultimate way to provide equal opportunities and environment, which they deserve so that they can live their lives respectfully, independently and happily.

Know more about Vydehi School of Rehabilitation, Whitefield, Bangalore

• Support your child with interaction
  As you are dealing with a child with special needs, you will have to take effort from your end to be the guiding light for your child or the torch bearer where you help your child to interact by teaching him simple interactions like sharing stuff with others, standing in a line, interacting with other children to name a few. Also, let your child practice this to learn it out.
• Nurture your relationship with the child
  Every day spend some quality time with your child, mingling and bonding. This sends the signal that the child is important. You may talk about the child friends, your life and even talk about the importance of caring for each other.
• Help your child with feelings management
  Primarily teach the child that feeling sad, happy, angry, distressed, jealous is all okay. But, it is very important to control your behaviour even if you experience extreme feelings. Talk about managing feelings like anger without losing your control and doing something stupid like hitting or throwing things around.
• Practice makes man perfect
  Yup, with autistic children practice is the key. Whatever you teach take time to make them practice what you’ve taught. The more you practice the more they pick up, be it social or emotional skills.
• Take External Help
  If you find out that your child also needs external help along with yours. Try consulting your paediatrician, school or a child disability specialist.

Be positive and help your child through the challenges. Your help will definitely help your child sail through the difficulties around social skills with ease.

As far as the working of the google glass is concerned, once paired on the smartphone with a stand-ford designed app, it helps the child with autism identify the expressions of different people they interact with and notify the same through an audio signal or through an emoticon on the glass display. It can keep a track of faces besides identifying social cues and actions.

A pilot study was undertaken for an age group of 3 to 17 years of age wherein, google glass system was used to help these kids interact better using facial affect recognition. The developed software known as superpower glass system runs on Android smartphones is a sort of boon to autistic children as it empowers them to improve their social interactions. The report on the pilot study was published in NPJ digital medicine journal.

The study was conducted on a group of 14 children with clinically confirmed autism at home over a time span of 10 weeks. The family used this therapy every week for a period of 20 minutes. Before the commencement of the therapy as well as after the completion of it, parents answered a questionnaire in order to provide details on the social skills of the child. The students show significant improvement in social skills as well as their facial expression identification and improvement in eye contact.

This is not the first time such a software is pilot tested. Last year a software that coached children having Autism spectrum disorder with their every-day interaction was developed by researchers at the University of Toronto, Canada. The app called Holii prompts an appropriate reply to a conversation between the wearer and the person in question. For example, if someone says welcome to the wearer, it prompts the wearer to reply with a Hi or a Hello.

The app can be a great help to bridge the gap in autism care. Due to the shortage of therapists, children with autism have to wait as long as 1.5 years for treatment, post their diagnosis. As per experts, early intervention in autism spectrum disorder patients proves to be highly effective and hence this product is particularly useful as it can be used as home-based treatment alternative.

*sourced from the internet