Diet Suggestions for special Children

The families of children with special needs face a lot of problems and impediments. Amidst all this they also have to strive for the betterment of their child. The lack of information and awareness about such issues further poses problems for them. Parents are overwhelmed with problems and care responsibilities, as a result they may overlook something as basic as maintaining a healthy and nutritious diet for their children. 

So here are some suggestions, straight from the experts from international schools for mentally challenged and disabled. 

Low Fat

According to a majority of special schools, these children tend to gain weight faster due to the lack of physical activity and mobility. It becomes a lot more difficult to train obese children with disabilities in taking care of their daily physical activities. These kids are very particular and temperamental about their food choices. So it is important for you to develop their palate so that they prefer a diet which is low on carbs and fat.

High Omega 3

Omega 3 and poly unsaturated fatty acids have known neurological benefits. Moreover it has various other benefits that would add up to the nutrition of your child. Special schools emphasize on feeding such children with fish oil supplements, beans, walnuts, soy products, milk, flax seeds etc.

Roughage

Constipation is a common problem in such children and is often more of a problem for them than normal kids. A diet rich in fiber keeps their system fresh and saves common digestion problems. Encourage them to eat raw green leafy vegetables and fruits.

Legumes

These have numerous benefits, and one of it is stronger and toned muscles. Your child would need his muscles stronger, in order to support himself through his daily activities. Peas, beans, and pulses provide that to them.

Fluids

A patient may or may not be capable of raising his basic needs such as thirst. Parents keep track of eating intervals but often forget fluids due to their other occupancies. Disability to urinate on their own is another reason why their fluid needs may get neglected, which can be harmful for their health. Most clinics and schools for mentally challenged have reinforced on fluid consumption. Fluids are important to them as they are on high medication and cleansing their body of the medical remains and toxins is essential.

Special school has a great hand in catering the future of the special child

People has always considered the physically challenged and the mentally challenged children to be the burden of the society and have perceived that they will always remain dependent upon their family and parents while with the development of the special school the concept and the belief has changed. Now even the special child who are physically challenged or mentally challenged can even have a great future with a prospective career ahead once they are being trained by the best faculties who can understand them and make them acquire the knowledge. These days you may find certain school for the deaf and school for the mentally disabled children who have given birth to some of the milestones in the society. These schools have appointed the best faculty members who have inspired and created a wonderful future for the special children who lack some sense organs or are mentally weak.

The school for the deaf is very much different from the other schools both in terms of the teaching faculty and the teaching style. Since these children lack one of their sense organs therefore they need to be given the teaching in some other ways which can help them acquire knowledge. These schools have appointed the highly trained and expertise teachers who are very much aware of the techniques of teaching the deaf students and have the ability to train them in the right direction to make them eligible to lead a comfortable life without any difficulties and without depending upon anyone. Apart from this these teachers take constant feedback from the students and uses a different way and style of teaching utilising their other sense organs in order to make them understand every minor details and concepts of the subjects and ensures that these students are fully educated.

Similarly the school for mentally disabled students are also very different from all the other types of school. Here the teachers appointed are given strong training about the psychology of the mentally disabled students and are also given detail information about their likes and dislikes. The teachers train the students with lot of patience and politeness so that they can create a strong bond with the students and help them to acquire knowledge. These teachers create interests among the students for studies and teach them calmly and take constant feedback from them to make sure that the students are able to understand their teaching. As the students are very moody by nature, so the teachers also keep catering the students and inspires them to focus on their studies and develops strong future with a splendid career of these special children.

Special children school creates the career of the mentally challenged children

Ever since the past people has always considered the physically and mentally challenged children as the weakest section of the society and believes that education cannot improve their life. People generally have a misconception that these mentally and physically challenged people will always stay dependent on their family and learning cannot improve their living nor can benefit them in any way while the fact is quality education to these physically and mentally challenged people can enhance their lives in a strong way and make them  independent. These days you can find many special education schools where these mentally disabled children can acquire knowledge and enable them to have an independent life and growth.

These types of children are very much different from the rest kids and need special care and attention and one need to understand them completely in order to make them learn. Once people are aware of the mentally challenged schools and admit their children in those schools then they can even become independent and create a career like the normal people. The teachers in these schools are highly trained and expertise and are given special sessions and trainings on how to teach the mentally disabled students. The teachers in these schools give quality instructions to these special kids and even teach everything with a caring attitude and nature so that the kids understand the teachings and acquire all the skills and knowledge.

The behaviour of teachers, the teaching patterns and methods are every different in these mentally challenged schools. Here the teacher has a high level of patience and builds up a strong bond between the students before starting their teaching. These students don’t grab the knowledge like the other children and hence the teacher creates a lively environment where the mentally challenged students enjoys and learn at the same time. The teacher motivates the students and inspires them to learn things and knowledge by creating an interest within them for studies.

Once you send your mentally challenged child to the special children school then you can be assured about their future. Here the teachers give special attention to these students and guide them at each point by taking repetitive feedback from these young minds and make adjustments with their mood and likeness to teach them with the right skills. Apart from this the teachers also builds in confidence within them and throw out their fear of being a mentally challenged person and instead nurture their future and skills.

Role of a Special Education Teacher in Special Education School

Not all the young boys and girls who go to school have the typical physical and mental capacities, which most students do. Special education school help these students learn and reach their own goals. Special education teachers are vital part of a special education school, which has to be customized to the needs of all kids who move through it and not just those who may have excellent ability and typical great health. At the same time as mainstream schooling might be the best answer for the majority of kids, including a lot of those with special requirements, there will always be some who will not be able to get what they need without an especially tailor-made plan and a distinct environment. The system needs to be able to identify these special cases, and then find the appropriate learning environment for them.

For the regular secondary school teacher, special education is not part of their everyday routine; however, they need to be able to recognize situations where special needs might be present. Quite a few kids are not adequately identified until several years of their education has gone by, and by this time, it will be more challenging to change the negative atmosphere into a positive one and get the child's education back on course. Teachers at all levels need to learn to spot prospective problem signs of not just special educational needs, but anything else that could require special attention.

Those with that intention are taught the best way to teach girls and boys with special needs in a way that they can have an understanding of and absorb. There is never any cast in stone rules regarding what's going to work more effectively with young boys and girls who have special learning needs, as a great deal is dependent upon the individual. Even when a medical expert can make a precise diagnosis, there is still the challenge of how bad the condition is and exactly how much the child is impacted.

A special education school might be called on to work within a standard classroom in which kids are typically taught, or in a completely different form of environment. Occasionally kids can learn and retain well simply not at the typical speed usually seen. These boys and girls are best taught in the usual classroom, if possible with other girls and boys in a similar situation. The fact that they could study in a normal environment will be a positive benefit to these girls and boys.

There are many areas in that a special education teacher works. Many kids have a learning disability, which causes them to a bit of difficulty to learn at the same pace as other youngsters, despite the fact that they are capable of retaining knowledge alike. The goal for these young boys and girls is a typical classroom setting. It may also help if there are other boys and girls with the same problem in that class too. Being able to participate in a normal classroom setting is an advantage for these children.

Benefaction of Special education school and teacher

MBCN - Special School for Deaf, Blind and Autism child

Special education school caters the need of autistic, dyslexic, mental retardations students or to child who are basically slow learners.  Students here are given a confidence to present themselves in the web of society and special methods are implied to boost their morals of living in the society.

Privileges and Benefits of these schools

1)    A Key element of special education schools is to concentrate on the child aptitude and approaches then gradually develop a skill of learning for enlightening their knowledge.

2)    Every child is born with inherent talent right direction and right time can teach them of being self reliant and solving the problems very efficiently and in unique methods.

3)    The main unique factor of these schools is that they give ample of time to students to appear for board level exams.

4)    These schools are designed with a vision of spreading literacy which enables the child to form a strong base of future.

5)    They are child-centric and the curriculum is easy to learn, the patterns are limited to basic learning which will not stress the kids too much.

6)    Several physical and physiological activities are undertaken for child recreation and to comfort them from varied different spheres of fun and recreation.

When we talk about special schools, the significance and contribution of special education teachers plays a pivotal role in inculcating education to young minds.  The presence of teacher helps students to develop in several ways that are as follows:-

1)    This teacher understands the worthy of every individual and thus implies the expertise solutions in teaching patterns helping in deeper understanding even for difficult subjects.

2)     As humans live in the web of society, at any given point of time human do need the help of each others for the same purpose, special education teachers teaches the students the importance of peering and bonding with each other.

3)    A teacher takes a extra effort to understand the child’s behavior and does practically implies behavioral management methods patiently.

4)    The focus is to give them the knowledge of key strength and helping to forget their disabilities.

5)    The teachers of the special schools give inspiring advice on early consultation programs, diagnosis and intervention for the kids.

Choosing schools that are right for your children can help them with brighter and optimistic career. A big thank you to special schools and teachers as do they keep the inspirations going and motivating thousands to have faith in the education patterns and learning processes.

Basketball and autistic kids

Basketball is a great sport for everyone to play. It is safer, needs less physical competence and is less complex in comparison to other sports. No matter, be it a residential school, day school or a special education school, the moment it comes to sports, 45% prefer playing basketball in comparison to other form of sports like cricket, tennis, hand ball and volley ball.

It is acknowledged that autistic kids are bit skeptical towards certain things and many of them do not prefer talking to anyone, but basketball is one such sport that appeals to these children as well. 

If your child is autistic and you’ve noticed that he is interested in playing basketball or any other sports, you should always encourage it so that he can play and interact and socialize with more and more people, says a special education teacher. Though it’s not that easy as it seems to be, however you should always take an initiative to teach your child. If you are not familiar to this game, but religiously want to know the playing techniques for sake of your child either hire a special education teacher or browse via online, you will come across a pool of online playing techniques that you can familiarize your kid with.

According to experts of special education school, you should make sure that instead of following those conventional styles, try recreational non-team style playing. If your kid doesn’t follow or is not responding well, don’t give up… be a patient observer and explain the game to the kid in the very same way, as he/she expects you to do.  After all it’s about your tiny tot’s liking, which cannot be compromised at any cost.

How to take care of special children at home?

Impaired mental growth in children is often observed with sympathy, but these children are supersensitive where there pride and self-esteem is concerned. They may not be able to assess and reason out the complexities of life but they surely recognize human emotions against them. Contempt, sympathy, and fear are the common expressions that they get from the society but love and respect is what they yearn for.

If you have a child with pediatric mental retardation, then you should take care of your child’s sensitive emotional state. The special mentally retarded schools train these children in coping up with their daily life but taking care of them after school hours is also important. In fact there are a lot of care homes for mentally challenged, that offer the best environment for the development of such children. These centers have tie ups with NGO’s and charities to spread awareness and extend a helping to the affected families. They even offer counseling to these families on how to handle their child with special needs, and according to their experts, following tips should be incorporated in day to day life while handling your child at home.

You should avoid noise or aggressive music around such children; it troubles their sensitive state of mind and may administer behavioral symptoms. Moreover, they do not accept strangers easily, so ensure that any new member should approach them subtly. They should not over emphasize their presence and allow these children to familiarize first. Take them to visit care homes for mentally retarded, so that they can make some friends, also the change in environment will be refreshing to them.

Furthermore, you should subtly support them through their daily activities rather than being overprotective. Always encourage them to do simple chores by themselves. You can supervise, but do not spoon feed them. This will instill motivation in them, building up their confidence and a desire to do more. Appreciation is also required; praise the smallest initiations and effort taken by your child, it may or may not improve their performance but will surely boost up their moral, which is what they need most. Moreover you can repeat the drills taught at their mentally retarded schools, so that the continuity of training is maintained.
  
Thus taking care of these extra points will help decrease the resistance faced in daily life.

Don’t hesitate in organizing parties

It has been seen that there are many parents who hesitate in organizing parties for their autistic kid. As a guardian, it’s your responsibility to make each and every minute of your angel’s life, a joyous one. In such a scenario, if you ever will begin to hesitate and think that whether your kid will feel comfortable or not then, accept this sad truth that you have already lost the battle.

According to one of the experts of school for autism said that, “if your kid is autistic and you’re planning to have a party on his coming birthday or any other occasion, but you are not able to take a firm decision about whether you should proceed or not then, don’t think much, just go for it.”

You should never ever leave an occasion uncelebrated, as these small things make a great impact in an autistic kid’s life, he will be able to talk, which will ultimately be beneficial. Throw a lavish party and religiously invite each and every school friend from any school and even from a school for the blind and differently abled, including your child’s play mates. Doing so will make him feel pampered and will help indirectly make you fulfill your objective i.e. to make your kid socialize as much as he can.

‘Make your kid socialize’ has been consistently recommended because when you’ll visit a therapist, he will analyze severity of autism by the way your kid will talk and the less a kid talks and interacts, the situation worsens. Thus, make sure that your kid do not suffers from verbal and non-verbal complications and this is possible only when you’ll treat your kid in that way.

Besides getting your kid to try these small things, make sure that you get him enrolled in a good school for autism. Besides schools for these autistic kids, there are many schools for the blind as well.

If you have been searching for a good school for autism then do not forget to check out institutions including Aanchal School, hope rehabilitation centre and other schools like Mata Bhagwati Chadha Niketan, which is naturally enthused towards mainstreaming of physically and mentally challenged.

Accepting Mental Illness in your Child

According to a survey that was conducted in 2011, almost 13% of the natal population is born with mental disabilities; out of the 18% who could have afforded the required treatments and facilities, only 3% were blessed enough to have it. This is horrible statistics for a country like India that claims to be tolerant towards all casts, colors and creeds of individuals. Thus we should be more aware towards accepting and caring for such children, as the love and care can make them functional enough to exist.

Discovering a mental illness in your child is not easy; initially the symptoms are often dismissed as delayed postnatal developments. Some of the disabilities can be detected in the 10^th week of pregnancy, while others become evident as late as 2 years of age. The best thing that a parent can do is to seek medical advice for the minutest of delays exhibited in development. As soon as the medical condition is diagnosed, instead of going into denial or seeking multiple advices from different physicians is not a solution, instead the parents should take some time to discuss it within themselves and later consult the doctor about the severity and extent of the disease. The parent should extract maximum knowledge about their child’s disorder and should continuously be in touch with medical consultants as to how and what extent of improvement is possible. 

Secondly, they should see counselors themselves, to better accept the fact and stay mentally strong throughout the supporting phases. It has been noticed that one of the parent adopts better than the other to the fact that their child is mentally disabled. In that case the couple should be supportive to each other and the child. This is where a psychiatrist or a counselor can really help.

As soon as you realize the fact and make peace with it, consult your doctor and look for an apt special education school. There are some schools for mentally retarded children who provide financial aids as well. Get in touch with NGO’s and social workers who can get help.  The role of enrolment in initial years is crucial in determining how far your child can manage, so you should pace up the process as much as possible and get him enrolled in a special education school. These schools for mentally retarded children help them be self-dependent and can teach them vocational activities.

Thus instead of being hopeless about your child’s condition you should accept it and stand with your child through thick and thin.