By
Dr. Yostena Henen Sadek
Psychology researcher- Faculty of Arts
Minia University
yostenaangelios@gmail.com
The presence of a disabled child in the family greatly increases the burden on the family, and becomes the beginning of a series of unbearable psychological conditions, especially since parents in particular are eagerly awaiting the birth of a normal, healthy and physically healthy child, which for them represents a biological and psychological extension of what they believe is a future project they put in. Their psychological and material giving in life.
The reactions of families who have a disabled child differ when they receive him, and find a way to confront this problem that shakes them and makes the mother and father panic, especially when the child’s disability is one of the severe and complex disabilities that requires the dependence of the disabled son on the family for a long time, and soon it becomes an inevitable reality, as Hopes and ambitions collapse, and it becomes an opportunity to blame oneself and others, and even loss of self-esteem, inability of will, and it may develop into dissatisfaction with life, and these feelings can haunt the family throughout the life of the disabled person.
The most important reactions that appear in these families from the moment they discover the disability are through several stages, and these stages follow each other, but the severity of each stage varies according to a number of factors, including: the age of the disabled person, the degree of disability, the educational level of the parents, the cultural environment, the economic and social level, and these The stages are:
Shock:
The shock begins when parents suspect that their child is not growing properly, and it is more profound when they receive a diagnosis of their child's condition. This stage is one of the very difficult situations faced by the doctors or specialists concerned, as they clarify certain details about the child's condition and the expected developmental status of the case.
Denial:
In other words, they deny the existence of a disability in their son, as they attribute this condition to a defect in the diagnosis process and are looking for other sources of comfort during this period, while denying them the fact that their son is disabled.
Feeling guilty:
And it is towards their child, because they did not take the necessary precautions to prevent the occurrence of the disability, and each party may blame the other, and make him responsible for creating this disability.
Anger:
At this stage, he may be referred to a family member, hospital or community, and also to the disabled child himself born, and there will be major changes in family life.
Isolation from the social environment:
By interacting with him reluctantly to avoid embarrassing questions from others, and sometimes to hide the presence of a disabled child in the family.
Acceptance:
It is the stage of controlling the crisis and accepting the child's disability, the parents realizing the truth and confronting it without shame, and the demand for educational and therapeutic programs and participation in them. Unfortunately, this stage may be delayed in some families, which delays and reduces the benefit of the disabled child from these programs.
And I stand at the stage of isolation from the social environment because it is the beginning of the research point that I am interested in now in my master’s thesis. Some studies and scientific research have proven that parents of children with Down syndrome refused to talk about their child’s disability, or to appear in social events as a result of their feeling of stigma, but I am looking hard for the roots of these feelings, which are The presence of some adaptive cognitive schemes that are activated as a result of the individual’s exposure to a painful event in life (the son’s disability), which in turn controls all of the thoughts, feelings, and even reactions.
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