OUR SPECIAL CHILDREN
Children with special needs are those with disabilities like Down Syndrome, Autism, Dyslexia, ADHD and multiple disorders including physical disibilities. The special children at our Centre include those with Down Syndrome, ADHD, mental retardation with seizures etc.
What is Mental retardation? A person having this condition learns or develops more slowly than other persons of his age. Mental retardation is now called Intellectual Disability (ID) as this term is less painful for the families of the affected persons. There still is a stigma attached to the term mental retardation and it hurts the feelings of those concerned. Persons with Intellectual Disability have below average intellectual function and a lack of skills necessary for day-to-day living. These maybe in the areas of
- Everyday living like personal care, recreation, managing money, managing the responsibilities of a job etc.
- Learning like acquiring language skills reading, writing, maths, reasoning, memory etc.
- Acquiring social skills necessary to make and retain friends, showing sympathy, interpersonal relationships and communication etc.
Activities of our special children
Like other health problem, there are varying degrees of intellectual disability ranging from mild to severe. ID is caused by injury to the brain due to various reasons and there could also be an inherent genetic factor leading to ID. Depending on the degree of disability a person can be trained to lead a fully or partially independent life. For extensive reading on Intellectual Disability and disorders, please look up the following links:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4040055
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_disability
http://www.webmd.com/children/intellectual-disability-mental-retardation