differently abled kids | ParentsSquare

Welcome to Holland: the experience of raising a child with a disability

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to help people who have not shared this unique experience, to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this. When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation – to Italy. You… [ Continue Reading → ]

What is autism?

What is autism? Autism is a brain disorder that makes it difficult for a person to respond to the world. It begins in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood. At first, autism was thought to be an attachment disorder resulting from poor parenting. This was proved a myth when it was found that autism sometimes… [ Continue Reading → ]

The Law and Disability

People’s attitude to the world of the disabled is changing rapidly. This is perhaps due to a greater understanding of the disability movement or the impact that people with disabilities make when they display their skills. All this has led to the disabled community being looked at with respect rather than with pity. It has… [ Continue Reading → ]

The Visually Impaired

While speaking of somebody with a visual impairment we would be referring to a person who is either partially sighted or is blind. A person is referred to as blind when he has a loss of vision or a field restriction so high that he or she cannot rely on sight for learning. Normally people… [ Continue Reading → ]

Special Education: Need for Trained Support

The disability field as most other rehabilitation fields was initially looked upon as a zone of charity. Consequently, there were very few technically qualified people. However, the scenario has changed a lot in the last few years and the need of the hour is for trained and qualified professionals. Special education as a field requires… [ Continue Reading → ]

The Mentally Challenged

Mental retardation means a condition of arrested or incomplete development of the mind of a person, which is characterised by sub-normality of intelligence. Mental retardation can be caused by any condition, which impairs development of the brain before birth, during birth, or in the childhood years. The three major causes of mental retardation are Down… [ Continue Reading → ]

Dealing with Dyslexia

As a baby, Amit was a fast learner. At barely eleven months he could reel off the names of vegetables his mother was storing in the fridge _ aalu, bhindi, tinda, ‘cauwlifower’. When he was three, he was the best TV mimic, dancing and singing for an appreciative audience. So when Amit went to school… [ Continue Reading → ]

Speech Problems in Children

I can see I can hear I can walk Why do all my problems surface When I try to talk? Speech problems can be frustrating indeed. Unclear (dyslalic) or dysfluent (stammered) speech can interfere with the development of healthy personality in an otherwise normally intelligent child and cause him tremendous hardship as he grows up… [ Continue Reading → ]

Cerebral Palsy

At the age of four years Divya was hit by a car. She sustained a cord injury that left her confined to a wheelchair for life. By the age of 15, she had adjusted to life in a wheelchair and was enjoying many typical teenage pastimes including video games and listening to CDs. However, the… [ Continue Reading → ]

The Disability Census 2001 – A Battle Won?

For India, the year 2001 is synonymous with a mind-boggling exercise called the Census. It literally means taking a head count of the number of people there are in the country. Done every 10 years, the arrangements for this are made on a war footing by the Government of India. The 14th National Census commenced… [ Continue Reading → ]