Finding out your child has a disability can be stressful and traumatic. It may be the beginning of a long road to find best care and support for your child’s needs. Shock is the first thing people experience. The disability may also affect the whole family. Some common problems include pressure placed on parent’s relationship due to stress, mothers often provide most of the care, fathers can feel left out and the other children become resentful because they get less attention.

In addition, no parent wants his or her child to be sick, disabled or harmed in any way. It is not an experience anyone expects to have rather; it is a journey that is unplanned. Many parents have described the progression of feelings they experienced upon learning that their child has an illness or a disability. The type of emotions parents experience, as intense and overwhelming as they may be, are also normal and acceptable.

Developing a positive attitude is very important and although children with disabilities will inevitably become aware of their limitations, they should always be encouraged to take new challenges. One of the first things you can do that may prove enormously helpful, now and in the future, is to collect information about your child's disability, about the services that are available, and about the specific things you can do to help your child develop to the fullest extent possible. Collecting and using the information available on disability issues is a critical part of being a parent of a child with special needs. Fortunately, there is a great deal of information available on many disabilities and many disability issues. Thus, if a child realizes that his parents always encourage success and will not be satisfied with anything less that his best effort, he will be motivated to succeed.

Many factors can influence the well-being of a family. One factor is certainly the emotional and physical health of the parents. You, as a parent, are definitely the heart of the family. Therefore, it is important for you to take some time to take care of yourself such as getting enough sleep, eating regular meals and doing things that you really enjoy.

Much of how you raise your disabled child will depend on your family’s personal beliefs about child rearing, your child’s age and the nature of his or her disability. Thus, an important point to remember is that most of the regular child raising issues will apply. They may not go through stages at the same age, at the same time or use the same words as children without disabilities but they are children and kids are kids.