I have read an article by BBC about “Autism Parents ‘Infection Risk’” and I was a surprised to read that parents who have children with developmental problems like autism and Down’s Syndrome would have their immune system affected.

This result was shown when 60 parents received pneumococcal vaccines, where half of these parents have children with developmental problems.

When blood tests were done, it was found out that these parents with children having developmental disabilities had lower levels of antibodies than the others.

This comes to mind parents who even had their relationship ended due to the stress brought about by caring for their children. One of the major issues too, in having a child or children with developmental disabilities would be the finances. Why?

Here in the Philippines, the different intervention programs aimed to help children with developmental disabilities are expensive. Most children undergo therapies with private clinics, attend private schools catering to their needs and enroll in different enrichment programs aimed to help improve developmental areas where they lack the skills. These are mostly shouldered by the parents and are by no means in expensive.

So how should these parents be helped?

Support groups. Counseling. These are two supports that can help them for a long time.

Of course, ice breakers and joyous moments, however fleeting, would help them cope for a bit, smile or let out a hearty laughter. These would probably happen when they see their children do things that they usually have difficulty doing. Maybe the appropriate way that their children respond to situations that used to trigger a tantrum.

On an even lighter side, watching a feel good movie, seeing funny tee shirts, eating home-cooked hot meals or seeping a warm cup of of tea would help them de-stress for the moment.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 20th, 2008 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Information, special education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.