Children with Disabilities and the Impact on Family

Exceptional children are not the only ones who are impacted the family is too. Families play a key role with involvement with helping the child on a day-to-day basis. The impact on the family comes in different ways, the parents are not the only ones who are impacted, and it ranges from the siblings of the child with disabilities to the long distance cousins. A child with a disability can often place a set of extra demands or challenges on the family. Each family member will play some type of role in the child’s life. Family is the support and care system for the child throughout their life but it is often overlooked at the impact of each family member and how they function. The impact could be something small or life changing for the family member. The first family members that are impacted are the parents of the child. They are impacted in many ways. The first way is learning how to care for the exceptional child. There are many challenges the parents can face when caring for the Exceptional Child. Many parents of exceptional Children experience a “range of emotions, but it is within such turmoil, that with support, they can begin to transform family life, and to shape new goals and expectations”. Each parent handles the situation of accepting they have an exceptional child from the moment they are told. “Parents differ in their responses to the situation. Some have the potential to achieve an impressive level of coping, maintain a positive outlook, and restructuring and sustaining life”. Each parent plays an important role in caring for the child.
For the fathers, stress is one impact they face. “Although not all fathers considered the experience raising a child with disabilities as stressful, those who did have high stress perceived their children as less adaptable and acceptable, as well as more demanding, moody, and distractible. Fathers with high stress also had increased depression and decreased attachment to the child.”. Fathers are sometimes

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