{"id":237,"date":"2013-04-05T09:03:36","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T13:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/?page_id=237"},"modified":"2018-12-03T15:41:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T20:41:43","slug":"parenting-children-with-special-needs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/social-well-being\/parenting\/parenting-children-with-special-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Parenting Children with Special Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The usual challenges of parenting are compounded for parents and primary caregivers of children with special needs.<\/p>\n<p>Among the many challenges are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Learning about the disability<\/li>\n<li>Researching, locating and accessing effective treatments and resources<\/li>\n<li>Coping with the emotional and physical demands of caring for an individual with a disability<\/li>\n<li>Getting to the innumerable appointments with medical providers, therapists, advocates, \u00a0and school personnel<\/li>\n<li>Advocating for appropriate school interventions, accommodations, and\/or placements<\/li>\n<li>Paying for the many treatments and interventions not covered by health insurance or the school system<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>STRESS<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The burden of stress is great for parents of those with special needs.\u00a0 A recent study found that mothers of adolescents and adults with autism had levels of stress hormones comparable to soldiers in combat.<\/p>\n<p>Finances are often a source of stress. Frequently one parent\u00a0sacrifices\u00a0their career to attend to the child\u2019s needs with a resulting loss of income for the family.<\/p>\n<p>The emotional impact is enormous and may include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fear and worry about:\n<ul>\n<li>Your child\u2019s pain and suffering<\/li>\n<li>Your child\u2019s future<\/li>\n<li>The question of whether you are doing enough or doing the right things to help your child<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Guilt over:\n<ul>\n<li>The limits of your ability to protect the child<\/li>\n<li>The loss of attention toward other children, your spouse and aging parents<\/li>\n<li>Your jealousy and resentment of those with \u201cnormal\u201d children<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Feelings of isolation because you:\n<ul>\n<li>Miss out on many family-oriented activities because\u00a0 your child\u2019s disability prevents her\/him from successfully participating<\/li>\n<li>Encounter criticism and judgment of your parenting from others who don\u2019t understand your child\u2019s disability<\/li>\n<li>Feel like an outsider around parents of typically developing children<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Grief over:\n<ul>\n<li>The loss of hopes and dreams you had for your child<\/li>\n<li>Not having the parenting experience you had imagined<\/li>\n<li>Recurrent reminders of what your child misses out on leading to chronic sorrow<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>SELF-CARE AND SUPPORT<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Parents of children with special needs are often exhausted and frequently become depressed.\u00a0\u00a0 Their reserves of time and resources for self-care are even more depleted than those of parents of typical children.\u00a0 Yet their need for refueling is also greater.\u00a0\u00a0 To be sustained through the marathon of caring for a child with special needs, it is essential that parents attend to their own needs.\u00a0 There is useful information throughout this website on caring for one\u2019s\u00a0health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n<p>Often the most beneficial support and information parents receive\u00a0comes from other parents of children with special needs.\u00a0 In recognition of this, a group of parents at BU founded a peer support network to help parents connect with other BU faculty and staff who are caring for a child with a disability.\u00a0 The network created a secure website\u00a0(requiring a Kerberos password for access) where parents share their stories and invite other parents to contact them for support, resource information, and guidance.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/pcd\/\">website <\/a>contains a Get in Touch link through which additional parents can join the network.<\/p>\n<p>Other sources of information and support are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Books by other parents of children with special needs<\/li>\n<li>Internet discussion boards or online parent support groups<\/li>\n<li>Local support groups (consider starting one if none exists)<\/li>\n<li>Advocacy groups, both general and disability specific<\/li>\n<li>School district Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For counseling, support, or assistance finding resources and services for yourself or your child, contact the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/fsao\">Faculty &amp; Staff Assistance Office<\/a>\u00a0which has counselors with specialized experience in helping parents through the challenges of raising children with special needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The usual challenges of parenting are compounded for parents and primary caregivers of children with special needs. Among the many challenges are: Learning about the disability Researching, locating and accessing effective treatments and resources Coping with the emotional and physical demands of caring for an individual with a disability Getting to the innumerable appointments with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6197,"featured_media":0,"parent":54,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2281,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237\/revisions\/2281"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wellness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}