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When an exceptional child joins a family it impacts the extended family as
well. Grandparents will be a vital and important source of support for their
child and the entire family, but must also come to terms with the changes in
their own life and changed expectations.
Grandparents are affected by the birth of a child with a disability. “They
face the double grief of their grandchildren’s disability and their own
child’s pain.” It is important to remember that they will need support and
information, too. (This is true for other members of the family as well.)
Therefore, your parents and other members of the extended family need to be
given opportunities to get to know your child as a person and not just as a
person with disabilities. Help them to understand your child’s strengths and
needs, help them to accept him or her as part of the family. Allowing family
members to become involved with your child may also allow you some much
needed time away from the responsibility associated with caring for a child
with special needs.
The above introduction is, in part, an excerpt from NICHCY. Reprinted
with permission from the National Dissemination Center for Children with
Disabilities (NICHCY).
Resources and support for grandparents:
An Article about a grandparent raising her grandchild:
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There is an
energy in us which makes things happen when the paths of other persons touch
ours.
from the Monks of Weston Priory
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