A Closer Look At What You Should Know About Parenting A Child With A Disability
Disabilities come in all shapes and sizes and can impact the lives of many different kinds of people. There are some types of disabilities that only impact physical ability and mobility, while others impact cognitive function as well. Some occur as a result of genetics, while others can take place after a birth injury or even an injury that occurs later on in life. And while disability management can certainly be challenging, those who live with various disabilities have a lot to bring to the table, as many parents of children with disabilities are well aware of. For these parents, providing the best life possible to their disabled child is likely to be the thing that they strive to do, the priority that takes precedence about just about everything and anything else.
When you’re pregnant, there is a certain amount of screening that you go through. For some people, the only prenatal screening will involve ultrasounds, which typically occur at 12 weeks and around 20 weeks, the halfway mark of the pregnancy. Both of these ultrasounds can help to spot any abnormalities in the fetus, which will then require further testing to learn more about. In addition to such measures of screening, many people will undergo a screening through a blood sample from the mother as well. While anyone can opt to have this type of screening conducted, it is mostly recommended for mothers to be experiencing high risk pregnancies. Mothers who are over the age of 35, for instance, are at an increased risk of having a child with a disability such as one of the types of down syndrome.
Identifying a child with a disability early, such as in utero, can be incredibly helpful indeed. After all, up to one out of every 700 births will include a child born with Down Syndrome alone – meaning that the syndrome is quite rare, but not as rare as many of us might have initially thought. Getting a diagnosis of down syndrome and expecting a child with a disability can mean that the parents are better able to plan ahead for having a newborn baby with down syndrome and later a kid with syndrome, as a child with a disability is likely to need access to additional services and resources than a child who does not have a disability. Babies with down syndrome can require specialized care much as a child with a disability will also require. Therefore, the ability to plan ahead by even a few months can be important to many parents.
Making plans for the care and keeping of a child with a disability into adulthood is also very important. After all, it is estimated that up to 10% of all people all throughout the world are living with some type of a disability – and many of these people are able to live longer than ever before, thanks to the advancement of medical technology, especially within recent years. In fact, the average age of a person with down syndrome has grown higher than ever, with most people with down syndrome now living to be at least 60. Many are now living to live to at least 80 as well, thanks to better medical screening and medical treatments. Therefore, the child with a disability is now likely to become an adult with a disability. The parents of a child with a disability must come to some conclusions about their child’s future, such as what their care will be once the parents have passed away, as will likely happen while the child is still alive and has a number of years ahead of them. A child with a disability will not always be a child and the quality of their life in their adult years is something that must be considered.
Raising a child with down syndrome or a child with a disability other than down syndrome can be quite difficult at time, but it can also be very much a joy. For many parents throughout the country and even throughout the world would change nothing about their child with a disability even if they could.
