Impact of Child Disability on the Family

Living with children with a disability usually has a considerable effect on the parents, siblings and the family members of the child living with the disability. The disability of a child has the potential to affect all aspects of the functioning of the family. The effects of the disability of a child in a family and the decisions made in the family pertaining the well being of the child. The disability of children has a direct impact to their parents, their siblings, friends and relatives. Examples of child disability are blindness, lameness or autism. Autism makes the children to act strange and is sometimes violent when relating with other children. The paper focuses the effect of child disability on parents and siblings. It has placed emphasis on the import impact that disability has on family and parent role and the sibling’s feelings.

The disability of children greatly affects family members. First and foremost, the psychological impact it has on family members is so detrimental. In fact, in some instances, parents require to get guidance and counseling to help them to positively cope with the situation. The disability of a child makes the parent to lower their self esteem. For example, in cases where children are disabled by the accidental course, the parents are always mourning about the strange happening (Burke 45). Also, disability that comes with autism during the childhood of an individual affects the parents directly since it causes the parents to feel a lot of pity whenever they see their child. The thought that the child would not grow like any other society member to get the required education and pass through the normal societal stages, causes the parents to get emotional stress. These parents need to be given psychological reality therapy to help them think rationally and face the reality of their children’s state.

The disability of children also has impact on the parents and family members when it comes to financing the medication. Most families which have a disabled child spend a lot of money in the attempts to change the disability of the child. In the cases where the child in question is suspected to have a psychological problem, they are taken by their parents to the relevant medication institutions. The love for the child by the parents makes the parents to ensure they have tried all the possible means to change the sorry state of the child’s ability.

Disability also has a considerable impact on family members. Sometimes, family members experience hard times with their brother or sister being disabled. A lot of their time is spent by the family members, which is aimed at maintaining a good relationship immediately. The family members always feel disturbed by their child who is suffering from a disability problem. The members also spend a lot of time to help the disabled children to cope with their daily lives.

The feelings of siblings about having a disabled relative are not very encouraging. The effect of disability of children on the siblings takes an emotional angle to great extent. Their emotions are really messed (Hower 120). They all require the company of the child. The disability of the child may deny the child from participating in play which is very instrumental in shaping the relations between siblings and play. There is much need for the siblings to play with their brothers and sisters, even with the child being disabled.  Having a disabled child in the family also has a positive effect since it increases cohesion in the family. The siblings in the family are held together by the disabled child as the uniting factor.

The existence of a disabled child in a family also increases the family’s attachment with religious institutions. The spirituality of a family is very important. This is because; the parents and the siblings of the disabled child become closely linked through religion. Religion also enhances warm relations and morality in the families. Morally upright families enhance the growth of the disabled children. Having disabled children as siblings increases emotional stress. This comes as a result of the possible love that the siblings naturally have for each other. For the parents, the emotional and financial struggles they undergo make it hard to offer the child affordable health care. Blame, guilt and reduced self esteem is found in the parents psychological perspectives found as a result of having a disabled child. Guilt comes in the cases where the parents think they are the cause of the disability in the child.

The siblings of the disabled child also use a lot of time and resources in the attempts to change the state of disability of the child. In most instances, since the siblings are known to be so caring, they spend a lot of money seeking medication to treat the disability of the people. During these sacrifices that the sibling makes for the disabled individual, much unity is achieved. This is because; the siblings are united by their love for their disabled child to help him/her out of the disability. Sometimes serious disabilities or serious health conditions of infants are likely to cause divorce. This comes with the fact that it becomes so hard for both the father and he mother of the child to accept reality.  Also, parents with disabled children have lower rates of social participation than other parents whose children are normal in terms of their health status. This means that the existence of a disabled child in the family causes the self esteem of the parents to reduce (Marinelli 400). The parents should not be set apart by the disability status of the children. Instead, they should seek to show the children that they are socially accepted like any other person in the society, even with their disability. Showing this to the children would also change. The impact of having a disabled child as a sibling has a negative effect on the mental health of the siblings. The siblings with disabled children are likely to experience poor cognitive development and poor peer activities. This comes because the siblings feel greatly attached to their disabled children. Their love for these children is dysfunctional expressed in the emotional stress that the siblings experience from time to time, whenever they think about their disabled relatives.

The parents with disabled children are known to spend two times more than parents with ordinary children. This is because the parents of disabled children have to prepare attractive meals to the disabled children. Also, these children have to be surprised with gifts every time so that they can be sure that their siblings and parents love them. Therefore, the parents who have disabled children invest a lot in shopping and taking care of the children. The truth is that parents of disabled children are vested with the responsibility of taking care of these children and providing basic needs for the children.

 There are possible ways to overcome the disability of a child in the society and live with it positively. The first way to enhance strength and togetherness in the families is by encouraging the good deed of self acceptance. The family members and the parents should accept the state of their families. The disabled children should also be showed some love so that they do no fell rejected. This would have a positive bearing on the performance of the family on all other issues. The disabled children in the families have a greater say on contentious issues more than any person in the family. This can be used as an advantage to appeal to the people in the family to Unite whenever there is an issue causing controversy (Seligma 313). The parent’s role is impacted on disability since the role of the parent is changed considerable. The parents of the disabled children are supposed to be closer than before. The parent’s are expected to know the little issues affecting the disabled children to cause the considerable change in their relationship with others. To make the family overcome disability, the child with disability should be taught the skills that are relevant to them as they grow up with time. These children are helped to exploit their talents by siblings and parents who are close to them at all times. For example these disabled individuals may be trained skills such as playing piano, public speaking or essay writing. There are possible areas of making the disabled person to support himself, and be independent.

Encouraging the disabled persons in the family are also possible ways to conquer disability and live with it positively. The disabled persons should be advised by the parents that they should be optimistic towards life and remind them that disability is nit inability. This would be very instrumental in sensitizing the disabled the people. The family unit should help the disabled person in this institution to cause a stable family like any other family. Helping the disabled person to adapt to the environment surrounding makes the parents and siblings to overcome disability. This occurs since the help that comes from family members may be very important to the emotional life of the disabled person. When the disabled person is at peace of mind, they are likely to perform better in the society (Thacker 17). The disabled individuals work hard to achieve their set goals when they receive support and encouragement from siblings. In this case, these individuals are motivated by the support that is given to them by the family and siblings, and this makes them deform in the family and the society at large. The people with disabilities in families should receive the required guidelines from the parents and siblings to help them participate actively into their lives positive development.

To overcome the disability at the family level, it is also necessary that the parents and the siblings offer relevant education to the disabled individuals. Education pillar that can be used to fight all forms of disability. Once the disabled children acquire education, they get the relevant skills that would enable them to live with the disability and make the family relationships even stronger (Thacker 17).

Conclusion

From the foregoing, it is unequivocally vivid and clear that Child disability has a dire consequence on the Family. It is extremely true that the consequences take a financial or a psychological ground. The parents have a big role to prevent the children from feeling isolated once they get disabilities. Therefore, the parents and the siblings should remain close to individual in their families who are disabled. This would ensure that these individuals do not feel rejected by any chance because of their disability. Parents too have a fundamental role in bringing up children who are disabled. In this particular instance, the parents are expected to be closer than ever to the individuals who are disabled in families. The finance and the time that is used by the family members may also be used to show the impacts of disability in the interpersonal relationship at family level, with the intention to ensure that those with disability live with it positively.