Chronic Illness In Children

Among siblings 88 percent are convinced that they are better people because of their brother or sister with down syndrome. People who haven’t experienced working with or living with a disabled person don’t understand the impact it has on your life and what you consider to be normal when it comes to a daily routine. With that said the person in my life who has shaped me to be the person I am today is my sister, Madison. Madison Ness is sixteen years old with down syndrome and attends Hamilton High School in the special education classes. She is short with dark brown hair making her not that noticeable but if you get a chance to meet her you will see that she makes quite an impact on everyone who crosses her path and that she spends every waking

Living with a chronic condition not only effects the individual, but it effects the entire family. An adolescent living with a chronic health condition not only depends on their family for support, but also on support from their friends, classmates, and healthcare team (Rostami, Parsa-Yekta, Najafi Ghezeljeh, & Vanaki, 2014). Supporting an individual with a chronic disease leaves an emotional impact and can be financially straining as well. Families living with a sick child must find strategies to cope. Whether the coping strategies utilized are positive or negative, they leave a lasting effect on the entire family, as well as the child living with the condition (Woodson, Thakkar, Burbage, Kichler, & Nabors, 2015). Involvement of the parents in this situation is vital to the child’s future success in managing their illness (Landers, Friedrich, Jawad, & Miller, 2016). This paper will explore one family’s story of living with, and coping with, a child who has recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).

According to Martinez and Ercikan (2008), survival rates of children with a chronic illness are at an all-time high, and up to 98% of those children, which experts might have considered incurable in the past, now reach early adulthood. They estimate 30% of school-aged children manage a chronic illness, a population for whom the prevalence of educational and psychological problems is almost double in comparison with the general population. Martinez and Ercikan (2008) hypothesize a difference in Mathematics Computation Exercise (MCE) scores and ratings on an Anxiety and Emotional Disorder (AED) for children who have a chronic illness when compared to those who don’t. Martinez and Ercikan (2008) investigated the educational and psychological effects of childhood chronic illness among 1512 Canadian children (ages 10–15 years).

To find that a member a family has learning difficulty is a huge shock for the rest of the family and brings emotions and new challenges. Living with a disabled person can have profound effects on the entire family–parents, siblings(brothers and sisters).For parents, having a disabled child

Describe the possible impact on a family of having a member with a learning disability.

The book called A Very Special Critter by Gina and Mercer Mayer is a book about a new kid named Alex coming to class who is in a wheelchair. One kid in the class was afraid because he had never seen someone in a wheelchair before. Alex came into class the next day, and everyone thought his wheelchair was super cool. Alex made a lot of friends. The book explains that no matter what disability a child has that there will always be someone there to support him/her. A child in their wheelchair may feel lonely and get down on themselves. Perhaps because they feel out of place, and feel as if they are incapable of what all their friends can do. However, that is not true. In today’s society, there are many sports and activities available for kids who have a disability (Mayer, 1992).

Their families continue to struggle with bills and looking for shelter. They are use to relying on loans and shelters to keep their family from starving and providing them with a temporary home. Parents are too busy worrying about money problems that they don’t realize that it is influencing their youngster in a substandard way. This exposes negativity and sadness to the children. Negativity results to a destructive impact on life. Children often blame their parent’s stress on themselves. Because of this, they hide their wishes and dreams. This prevents them from achieving the marvelous and success they need to thrive in adulthood. Children don’t have as much confidence in themselves as they do when they are positive. Povertized children already have heard many rumors and names at school. With the negativity at home, the children don’t even have confidence that will push them to love themselves for who they are. Bullies are another factor that affects a child’s self esteem especially if they are going through poverty. A reporter had mentioned that bullies considered these children as different. They called them dirty and filthy because they came from a poor

The quality of life of family members, as well as of patients, can be hugely reduced in terms of physical effects, psychological distress, and social problems. The family members of patients experience emotions such as worry, frustration, and stress. Parents of children with physical and mental disabilities experience social problems, and the work life of family members of NCD patients is affected. Research shows that the family members of patients can be more emotionally affected by illness than patients

Sadness, openness, concern, desperation, happiness, admiration—these are the feelings I experienced while reading the stories of different families and their perspectives as parents of children with disabilities. Each reading offered a different aspects through the eyes of mothers, fathers, and, most importantly, the person with the disability. Through the experiences of each individual, I was able to gather more insight into the feelings of my own family members and friends that have dealt with the same inner struggles, and in turn, realize my own short comings with understanding and the importance of person first language.

The benefit of having a sibling with a disability is the teenager can learn from their experiences taking care of their siblings and may chose a career field that can help other children like their sibling. It has been written that a younger age the sibling can sense the needs of their disabled sibling and learn to be more understanding, compassionate and open minded to people

Curson,D. & Sharkey, S.(2006) ‘Out of the mouths of babes’: Drawing upon siblings’ experiences to develop a therapeutic board game for siblings and children with a chronic illness. Clinical Psychology Forum, 159, 36-38

Pre-existing conditions are conditions that a person had prior to obtaining a health insurance policy. Pre-existing conditions include a variety of chronic conditions, such as obesity, high blood pressure, asthma, diabetes, etc., and acute or short-term conditions, such as pregnancies and accidental injuries (Henry Keiser, 2012). According to Families USA 2012 report “more than 64.8 million non-elderly Americans have been diagnosed with pre-existing conditions” (Families, 2012, p. 1).

As explained in my essay, my brother’s condition did truly take a toll on my parents and myself in our daily life. My brother’s condition was never predictable, which made it much more difficult of a situation to deal with. There were times where he would not have a seizure for a few days. Yet, on other days, he would have about ten seizures a night. I remember clearly how somedays I had to stay home rather going to school just incase we had to take my brother to the hospital. Being the only English speaker in my family, I had to be present in such situations. I remember sitting on the side of his bed with my mother next to me, just waiting for him fall asleep so we could get some rest ourselves. There were times where I would go to school without getting much rest the night

In contrast, Wennick and Huus (2012) focused on the experience of healthy siblings. While knowledge and decision-making were found to be important to parents, siblings were concerned with how their lives would be different, concern for their sibling and what they could do to care for their brother or sister with a new diabetes diagnosis. A common trend reported by the children in the study was that things were not as they were before, a marked change was noticed, and siblings expressed concern regarding their brother or sister “poking” themselves daily. It is recommended that the diabetes educator create a teaching program specific for siblings. Often, siblings feel as if they are left in the dark, jealousy may occur as the affected child is receiving more attention, which may lead to sibling competition (Wennick & Huus, 2012). The diabetes educator can help prevent this by tailoring a program for the siblings, allowing them to feel included and provide the child with a deeper understanding of what their sibling is

Growing up with two siblings who are both handicapped has influenced me most as a person and student. My older sister Alex, who is 31, has cerebral palsy which impairs her both mentally and physically. This disability leaves her unable to care for herself and makes it hard to accomplish the most basic tasks that some take for granted like eating a meal or holding a conversation. My younger brother Harry, age 27, was diagnosed with severe learning disability as a child. He lives in Boston and works a part time job (stop and shop) but is heavily dependent on my parents to support him. Additionally, his potential for higher learning and employment is bleak.