Do you often hear the word “Special Needs”but do not understand what it means? Well allow us to offer some detailed information: “Individuals with Special Needs” describes children, adolescents and adults whose needs require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, educational, mental, or psychological. When it comes to our children, we often put their needs above ours, which is why; we must understand their functioning in order to offer them the appropriate care.
The term Special Needs comprises different types of difficulties such as:
Behavioral Problems
Children with behavior issues don’t respond to traditional discipline. With diagnoses like ADHD, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Dysfunction of Sensory Integration, and Tourette Syndrome or other specific genetic syndromes, they require specialized strategies that are adapted to their specific abilities and disabilities.
Neurodevelopmental and Genetic Disorders
Developmental disabilities like Autism, Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities often cause children to be removed from the mainstream, and parents must be fierce advocates to make sure their children receive the services, therapy, schooling, and inclusion they need and deserve.
Intellectual disorders reflect impairment in the cognitive functions of the individual while autism spectrum disorder is more related to one’s social interactions.
Mental Health Problems
A child’s problems with anxiety or depression can sneak up on parents; problems with attachment may smack them right in the face. Living with a child with mental health issues can put family members on a roller coaster of mood swings and crises and defiance. Parents have to find the right professionals to help, and make hard decisions about therapy, medications, and hospitalization. The consequences of missed clues and wrong guesses can be significant.
Learning Difficulties and Disorders
Children with learning disabilities like dyslexia and Central Auditory Processing Disorder struggle with schoolwork regardless of their intellectual abilities. They require specialized learning strategies to meet their potential and avoid self-esteem problems and behavioral difficulties.
Learning disorders are often confused with learning difficulties. Those latter can be due to interpersonal factors such as change of school or residence, educational environment, the birth of a new brother or sister, a troubled parental relationship. Or they can be the results of intrapersonal factors such as anxiety, puberty and its related changes. Sometimes, both of the factors can co-exist creating a disturbing academic path for both the child and the parents.
On the other hand, the term ‘specific learning disability’ means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. (See our Hearing Impairment and Speech Disorders page).
Sensory processing disorders, visual impairment, hearing impairment…
Each type of difficulty requires a specific type of intervention and only a multimodality team with a comprehensive approach can efficiently help the individual struggling with such “Special Needs”.
At Nawfal Clinics, we treat the individual with special needs, not the disorders!