1. Alternative Child Rearing Practices Briefing - Disabled Children
Delivered by Sharon Cumberbatch
Family Services Manger/Deputy Director Carers of B&D/Lay Member LSCB

2. Biography Local – live and work in LBBD
Parent Carer – to 32 year old disabled son
Family Services Manager – Carers of B&D
Working with approx Young Carers and approx. 900 Parent Carers

3. Am I different?
Parenting a child with a disability or additional needs can often be a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences. It can be really hard to talk to others about how you feel or what you are doing as you may feel they might not be able to understand it fully.  

4. TASKS PARENTS FACE ON DIAGNOSIS OF DISABILITY IN THEIR CHILD
12/09/2018
FEELINGS AT DIAGNOSIS
TASKS PARENTS FACE ON DIAGNOSIS OF
DISABILITY IN THEIR CHILD
THE TASK OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
to face up to our child’s disability and come to grips with it.
Deeper currents of feeling: PAIN – LOSS – GRIEF
FOR THE NEW PARENT:
Handling powerful feelings that are breaking through normal composure
Experiencing a range of intense feelings, in particular loss (and grief)
Questioning self and others – what is wrong with my child? How did it happen?
Needing to include family and friends in the experience.

5. What makes me different?
Poverty
Mental & Physical Health
Discrimination
Damaging labels
Pain of disability
Stigma

6. EMERGENCE SURVIVAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FOCUS
12/09/2018
Disclosure of a disability “lays down” an emotional
Template of parental responses which may be evoked,
but also resolved, in subsequent transitional adjustments such as:
HOMEMAKING
BELONGING
WORK/LEISURE
ACTIVITIES
MOVES FOR HEALTH
& EDUCATION
EDUCATIONAL
STATEMENTS &
SCHOOLING
EARLY
INTERVENTION
NEW DIAGNOSIS/
DISCLOSURE OF
DISABILITY
PARENT’S EMOTIONAL TEMPLATE
SHOWING CARRY OVER OF UNRESOLVED
TASK OF SURVIVAL WHICH MAY ADVERSELY
EFFECT DECISION MAKING RELATING TO THE
DEVELOPEMENTAL TASKS OF THEIR
CHILD/DEVELOPMENT
UP TO 2 YEARS
EMERGENCE
SURVIVAL
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
IMPAIRMENT DISABILITY
FOCUS
TASKS OF ADJUSTMENT FOR PARENTS FOLLOWING
DIAGNOSIS OF DISABILITY IN THEIR CHILD

7. Risk of Abuse and the Position of Disabled Children
1. Reviewing available research found that disabled children represent a disproportionate number of the total known child abuse victims
2. Given there is no co-ordinated approach to data collection, it is difficult to tell accurately what the overall incidence of abuse among disabled children might be. Those studies that do exist clearly suggest disproportionate representation of the disabled child.
3. In child abuse investigations for all children in the USA in 1994 about 1 in 3 cases reported maltreatment of children were substantiated. Of cases reported only about 60% were investigated. In that year neglect was the most frequent type of maltreatment (53%), followed by physical abuse (26%), sexual abuse (14%) and emotional abuse (5%).

8. The likelihood that an individual child will experience abuse or neglect may be influenced by:
the family situation: poverty is especially related to serious neglect and severe abuse, as is the presence of male batterer of his partner; also unemployment, or social isolation. Most poor families do not maltreat their children these factors interact with care giver characteristics such as:
the caregiver i.e. personal experience of child abuse, substance abuse, witnessing domestic violence as a child, psychological impairment, negative attitudes towards parenting, low self-esteem, poor impulse control, aggressiveness, anxiety and depression, inappropriate expectations of the child and inaccurate knowledge of child development.
the child’s vulnerability is increased by being: younger children, girls, premature infants and children with more irritable temperaments are more likely to suffer abuse and neglect.

9. Encourage
Independence
Direct
payments
Benefits
transferred to the young
person when
sixteen
Further
education
Seeking
opportunities
Whose
problem?
Letting go
Employment
Our focus
on disability
issues
Alternative
living
Don’t assume
Work
experience
Advocate
Circle of
friends
After school
clubs
Human right
Allowing
choice
Don’t
compare
Socialization
Managing
one’s own
life

10. Conclusion REFLECT - How challenging is it to parent a disabled child?
REFLECT - on your own working practices in this area.

11. QUESTIONS
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING

12. Contact details Sharon Cumberbatch
Family Services Manager/Deputy Director/LSCB Lay Member
Carers of B&D
334, Heathway
Dagenham
Essex RM10 8NJ
Website:
B&D SCB website: