A comparison of how parents cope with child's cognitive disabilities at different age ranges.

A comparison of how parents cope with child's cognitive disabilities at different age ranges. Review

When children are born it is often an opportunity for a parent to "show off" their child. However, when the unexpected happens, and a newborn is delivered with impairments, the parents often react quite differently from the parents whose child is "normal". Parents' management of stress resulting from their child's cognitive disabilities can affect parents' attitudes and interpersonal-relationships with their children. Their coping strategies in dealing with their child's cognitive disabilities can be critical to a child's development. For the parents of children with various low-incident disabilities, how they cope with their child is considerably different from the parents whose child is more typical. As Ross (1953) found, the success or failure of the family depends on the attitude of the parents toward their child. This can be revealed when parents with children who display low-incident disabilities demonstrate adaptations with time, effort, care, and strategies to meet the needs of their child. As a result, the parents' ways of coping are crucial to the child and the family's development.