Raising Children With Intellectual Disabilities

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Since children with intellectual disabilities require more support and care, being a parent of such children is likely to be more demanding than being a parent of normal children (Hollins, Woodward, and Hollins, 2010). Globally, many children with intellectual disabilities and their parents are underprivileged in terms of socio-economic status (World Health Organization, 2008). The numbers of children with intellectual disabilities being cared for at home are increasing and this is mainly because of the emphasis there is now to care for people with disabilities in the community (World Health Organization, 2010). The main carer for such children in a home context are parents (Jacques, 2003). The parents’ life quality can be affected by caring for a child or adult with a disability (Mansell and Wilson 2010). For all parents caring for one‘s children brings joy and achievement but also has challenges and stress. Parents who bring up intellectually disabled children have been regarded as a unique group of caregivers due to their encounter with unique circumstances and challenges in the process of looking after these children. In other words, those parent-caregivers deal with the children’s significant developmental delays resulting in insufficiencies in physical, sensory, communication and cognitive skills and some will also have significant complex …show more content…

Factors Affecting Parental Practices in Raising Children with Intellectual Disabilities According to Beirne and Mary (1994) mild and moderate level of children with intellectual disabilities is usually associated with the socio-cultural or familial factors whereas the profound type of intellectual disabilities is usually caused by the genetic or hereditary factors. Therefore, it is possible to say that mild and moderate level of intellectual disabilities is the result of environmental factors that affect the quality of parental practices and support for children with intellectual disabilities. 2.8.1 Family

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