Book Description

It is indeed a great privilege to write the foreword to the thesis “ A study on psychosocial well being of parents with intellectually disabled children” of Dr. S. Parameswari, which is being published as a book. This work of Dr. S. Parameswari need special appreciation as she had addressed a major challenge of parents of Intellectually impaired children. Being a parent of a child with special need itself is a major challenge. But when the child has specic problem of intellectual impairment, parents become more stressed as in our country “academic education”, “success in educational system” and “ scoring good marks” are seen as hall marks of a good child. But our general educational system is designed to those who have normal cognitive functional capacity (IQ) and syllabus, need to be completed in a given period of time. For children with intellectual impairment, general educational system is a major challenge and when parents see their children struggling in educational skills , they become more frustrated. This thesis start with basic information on Intellectual Disability , which will help a reader to gain an insight of this specic aspect related to children. Concepts such as classications, causes, characteristics, signs and associated problems will help parents, educators and other stake holders to understand the different dimensions related to intellectual impairment. It is important for parents to know the signs and to seek support from very young age. Early intervention focusing on “ Total development” is critical for upgrading cognition , behavior , and skills . It is important for parents to understand the assessment process and seek assistance when the child needs help . As intellectual impairment is mostly a condition needing understanding and acceptance of parents, the attitude of parents is critical in upgrading the quality of life of this group of children. This thesis gives information on psychosocial well being , coping strategies , parental attitudes and most importantly marital adjustment. The best way to understand the psychosocial well being of parents of Intellectual Impaired children is by doing a research study. This author had made an effort to truly understand the situation of parents and had addressed many important dimensions of parenting of this group of children. The most signicant part of this study relate to the effort of researcher trying to understand the fact that parents of intellectually impaired children are likely to have more problems in their life both sociologically and psychologically. These challenges will naturally create stress, anxiety , marital challenges and economical challenges. Doing a structured research in this topic, will denitely help parents, special educators, teachers, policy makers , Government and social workers to look at the needs of parents based on research ndings. The author gives the implications of the study , suggestion to academic institutions, Governments, to the family members, parents associations , social workers and the society at large. I am sure this research study , when published as a book , will help parents , special educators, social workers and policy makers to address the needs of not only parents of children with Intellectual Disability but also to the well being of children.