Essay Example: Experience of Parents of Children With Exceptional Needs

Heiman, T. (2017). Parents of children with disabilities: resilience, coping, and future expectations. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 14(2), 159-171. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015219514621

This article discusses various experiences that parents of children with special disabilities have. Based on the characteristics of the resilience of such parents, this article investigated the viewpoints of parents of children with learning, intellectual, and physical disabilities. Heiman, in this article, ascertains that most parents whose children have intellectual incapacities don't have a positive experience and are just trying to cope up with the situation. In his study, Heiman conducted research on thirty parents of children with special needs. He maintained that participants were living with their families at home in big metropolitan regions in the USA. The participants were selected from schools of special education, which were oriented on handling one type of special disability, that is, learning, intellectual, or physical. Demographic information concerning the parents was obtained from those schools with the assistance of the school counselors.

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After collecting and analyzing sufficient data from such schools, Heiman (2017) discovered that the majority of parents were compelled to undergo a lot of changes in their social lives and registered high levels of dissatisfaction and frustration, with most of them trying to cope up with their routine life. However, Heiman (2017) further argued that some of the parents conveyed the need for a firm belief in their children as well as their future, a realistic outlook, and an optimistic view as well as the acceptance for their children's disabilities. The study further indicated the significance of social resources and support, as well as the need for efficient and effective intervention programs.

Beighton, C., & Wills, J. (2017). Are parents identifying positive aspects to parenting their child with an intellectual disability or are they just coping? A qualitative exploration. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 21(4), 325-345. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744629516656073

Beighton and Wills (2017), in their article, acknowledge the implications that parents with special needs children undergo in their daily lives. The article reported that parents whose children have special needs are depressed and less optimistic concerning the intellectual and professional future of their children. Furthermore, Beighton and Wills (2017) maintained in their article that some parents find it hard to cope with children with intellectual challenges and would always wish not to identify with them.

Beighton and Wills (2017) conducted their research among thirty parents who have children with special needs. In their study, they reported that most parents are subjected to the stress of caring for children with intellectual incapacities. However, some parents reported that such children contributed to certain levels of positive changes in their families and lives. During their study, Beighton and Wills (2017) identified various themes; changed priority, improved sense of personal confidence and strength, much appreciation of life, increased spirituality and faith, as well as the positive implications that such children have on the wider community.

Beighton and Wills (2017) conducted an interpretive evaluation of the themes and revealed that the positive aspects mostly consisted of a meaning-focused coping strategy, which helps the parents to successfully adapt to stressful experiences they undergo in caring for children with special disabilities.

Healey, B. (2020). Helping parents deal with the fact that their child has a disability | LD Topics | LD OnLine. Ldonline.org. Retrieved 10 September 2020, from http://www.ldonline.org/article/5937/.

Healey (2020) argued in this article that most parents get traumatized upon leaning the fact that their children have intellectual disabilities. His study revealed that such parents are subjected to shock, anxiety, fear, as well as the despair that makes it difficult for them to take good care of their children. Their children's mental status as well as future well-being inflict much worries to them. Healey (2020) conducted his research in hospitals handing mentally disabled children, and with the help of the hospital counselor, he discovered that parents of children with mental disabilities have little hopes in the well-being of their kids. He further reported that such parents find it hard to accept the mental status of their child. Overwhelmed with stress concerning their beloved child, some parents committed suicide, especially when they could not cope with the daily challenges of raising such children.

Healey (2020) further argued that relaying mental diagnosis reports with the proper degree of hope and compassion to such parents may be challenging to doctors, a factor that throws the parents into extreme stress and anxiety. The article further ascertained that the way in which doctors explain diagnosis report to parents might have an extreme and prolonged impact concerning the attitude of the parents towards the child as well as professionals. Healey (2020) further claimed that for most parents, understanding the differences between their expectations and desires for their children and the existing disability negatively impacts their intellectual and emotional efforts to adapt to the situation.

Taub, D. (2020). Understanding the concerns of parents of students with disabilities: challenges and roles for school counselors. Reading rockets. Retrieved 10 September 2020, from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/understanding-concerns-parents-students-disabilities-challenges-and-roles-school-counselors.

This article argued that not every special need student gets enrolled in the educational system when already identified with a special need. However, the movement for early interventions and identification and proved to be fruitful in identifying children with mental incapacity at the levels of preschool. However, Taub (2020) argued that it might be difficult to identify the needs of some children up until they start formal education. Taub (2020) further claimed that parents have greater expectations, dreams, and wishes for their children even prior to their birth. Parents hope the best for their babies and always go by the assumption that their baby will be born healthy. The author of this article maintained that the dreams and hopes of parents are destroyed upon discovering the disability in their child. Taub (2020) stated that the sadness associated with the mental status of the child might be a continuous issue that revolves around the formerly speculated events; this makes the parents have a negative experience in raising their children and thus find it hard to cope.

After conducting his research within sixty households associated with special needs, Taub (2020) reported that parents whose children have special needs spent much time caring, and this has greatly impacted their well-being. Most parents reported not having any negative experience in raising such children, and the majority have lost hope in the future education of their children, hence making them just to cope.

Machalicek, W., Lang, R., & Raulston, T. (2015). Training Parents of Children with Intellectual Disabilities: Trends, Issues, and Future Directions. Current Developmental Disorders Reports, 2(2), 110-118. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40474-015-0048-4

Machalicek et al. (2015), in their article, argued that the major stressor to parents is discovering that their children have intellectual disabilities. Machalicek et al. (2015) further argued that with patience and understanding, parents could learn on various ways of coping up as well as taking steps to empower their children in working through their intellectual disabilities.

In their study, Machalicek et al. (2015) undertook systematic literature research for the primary report of the longitudinal study of the experiences that parents of children with intellectual incapacity undergo in their daily care. The study discovered that parents whose children have mental disabilities are mostly depressed and exhausted and, therefore, have a negative experience in raising such children. The result of the research discovered that such parents have no alternative but just coping with the situation. In extreme cases, the study revealed that some parents go to the extent of disowning their children due to public stigmatization.

Furthermore, Machalicek et al. (2015) maintained that some of the positive experiences and support that parents of children with intellectual challenges have is the information and support that they get from fellow parents having children with the same type of special needs. In their article, Machalicek et al. (2015) argued that parents with special needs children have a negative experiences and feelings concerning the well-being and, therefore, the future profession and education of their children. Such feelings subject parents to a lot of anxiety, and depression which may consequentially lead to negative impacts in their lives. The article claimed that the parents are subjected to public stigma, a situation that worsens their experience and feelings.