Counseling

When a mom discovers a child with deafness [ for that matter any handicap], It is one of the toughest part in her life.To accept that her beloved child has a flaw ,is very difficult for her and at that time she needs someone to see her through.Counselling her through that phase so that the child gets the best help possible is important.In India it is still not so .There is hardly any counselling done.I feel it affects the child a lot.Till the time I was weak and sad and depressed, my girl really was ignored and left out.Luckily I came out pretty quickly to look for help.Once the mom is strong the family around too sits up to see the gravity of the situation.All help and information starts to come in.

If the councillor empathises with the parents and can answer all their questions life does become easy to decide the plan of action.There is hardly any advise that is given.In fact lot of people have got wrong advise that benefits the seller of aids.It is years before they realize what harm has been done.Some mothers are strong enough but I have seen a lot of family break ups as the majority of the responsibility of the child lands up with the mom and some fathers think it was her fault that such a child is born.People follow the audiologist blindly and not all of them can be trusted.
A good counsellor will make sure that all adequate answers are found out for the problems that the family faces.
Advice is needed for ....
-Acceptance of the child with the disability.
-helping the mom and family to cope with it.
-Helping them to realize that the world has not ended and life has to be faced to help the child.
-sometimes financial burden is difficult to deal with.
-Child's need are primary and so his/her all round capability has to be looked after and nurtured.
-a better understanding between parents and child .
-Helping the child to learn to deal with it.If parents are ashamed of the child , the child will never be able to deal with it.
-building up child's confidence to help in dealing with the disability.
-Ways of dealing with the society and questions raised by them.
-helping the family to deal with day to day problems relating to child.
-Dealing with psychological and emotional breakdowns.
These are some of the common points where if proper advice is given , it would help the family to come around and provide a wholesome environment for the child to grow into a confident and able human being.