Those caring for special needs children
A caregiver has the responsibility of looking after someone who is unable to care for himself or herself due to illness, frailty, disability or a mental health problem.
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This definition meets the basic needs of every child simply because of their inability to care for themselves.
Caregivers include teachers and therapists.
At a certain age, children are expected to at least learn to be independent and to acquire skills for daily living.
The caregiving role of parents and guardians can, therefore, lighten up as a child grows and learns these skills.
This, however, is not the case when the child has an illness or special needs.
Caregivers can experience many cognitive, emotional, social or mental imbalances that can disturb their functioning because of the demands of coping and caregiving.
They have to take good care of themselves first, so they can take good care of the child too.
Sometimes, their role is complicated by spousal conflicts and financial difficulties, because of the circumstances they find themselves in.
In ideal societies, some systems and structures recognise and support such people.
Resilience
Promoting resilience among caregivers is, therefore, essential to improve the child’s quality of life.
Resilience is simply the ability to transcend adversity or an unpleasant situation and to go on to positively adapt.
Resilient people have protective factors that help them to thrive and succeed even when times are tough.
These protective factors are in three places.
They must be identified and enabled in the best interest of the child.
They can be found in the caregivers themselves, in the immediate family around the caregiver and child and the environment.
Caregivers must be supported to accept the difficulties of the situation.
They can do this when they are able to confront the stresses and have the opportunity to be emotionally expressive.
To focus on giving quality care, they must be willing to go with the flow and build the capacity to plan.
It is easy for caregivers to blame fate and others, whilst taking a pessimistic view of the situation.
Under this duress, they end up with a short fuse and can strain themselves.
Professionals
Professionals, such as psychologists, are important in helping build tolerance, self-awareness and self-understanding, positive humour, autonomy and empathy, among other things.
To build resilience, caregivers must be encouraged to make positive confessions, whilst being mindful of what they can control and what they cannot.
A caregiver will benefit from being sociable and knowing when to seek help from others.
Rather than allowing fear and societal prejudice to make them stay in isolation, caregivers must pursue information, they must seek economic resources if possible and learn to build the patient–professional (health care) relationship that is necessary.
The family around the caregiver and child must also be willing to lend support where necessary.
It is not uncommon at all for caregivers to focus on the disability of the child instead of the strengths.
A balanced view of life is a vital necessity every single day.
This way, it is easy to feel the joy and celebrate the small progress that the child is able to make.
Having a special need makes a child more vulnerable to maltreatment.
Caregivers who are unable to cope become frustrated and may maltreat the child with special needs.
Children with special needs are at least three times more likely to be abused or neglected than their peers who have no needs.
Children who rely on adults, and those who are non-verbal or have hearing impairment, are more likely than others to experience neglect and all forms of abuse.
The writer is a Child Development Expert/ Fellow at Zero-to-three
Academy, USA.
E-mail: [email protected]