Medical and Educational Assistance Provided by Family Members for Children with Invisible Disabilities

Abstract

This review cum perspective-based article is focused on the medical and educational help provided by family members having invisible health-related debilities. The father and mother as parents play a vital role as the most responsible family members in the lives of children with disabilities. The author of this intellectual work has presented his views about topics related to medical and educational assistance, specifically given by parents in ‘India’ for children with unseen health-related limitations. The author has presented the above-mentioned personal perspectives based on his detailed phone conversation with both the parents of 10 children with non-visible disabilities from ‘Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Puducherry and Rajasthan, India’ during the period from ‘September 2024 to February 2025’ at their convenient time with prior permission. Suggestions given in this article would help in increasing the involvement of family members in providing needed medical as well as academic-related help for children whose disabilities are not visually apparent. Specific recommendations are also provided in this intellectual work to the government and civil society organisations respectively for increasing participation of family members in medical care and education-related help for children with non-transparent health-related debilities.

Keywords

Children with invisible disabilities medical help educational assistance family members’ support

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abed

M. G.

, & Shackelford

T. K.

(2023). Parent involvement with their children’s schools: Perceptions of Saudi parents of elementary school students with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice , 38(2), 144–154.

Aldersey

H. M.

(2012). Family perceptions of intellectual disability: Understanding and support in Dar es Salaam. African Journal of Disability , 1(1), 32.

Balli

(2016). Importance of parental involvement to meet the special needs of their children with disabilities in regular schools. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies , 5(1), 147–152.

Epstein

J. L.

(2001). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Westview Press.

Gedfie

, & Negassa

(2018). Parental involvement in the education of their children with disabilities: The case of primary schools of Bahir Dar City Administration, Ethiopia. East African Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities , 3(2), 43–56. https://www.cpwd.org/blog/the-unseen-understanding-invisible-disabilities?rq=invisible%20disabilities

Malvika

(2016). Attitude of undergraduate students towards differently—Abled individuals (Doctoral research work in social work). Department of Social Work, Madras School of Social Work, University of Madras.

Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India. (2011). Disability in India—A statistical profile . https://mospi.gov.in/publication/disability-india-statistical-profile-2011-1

Odongo

(2018). Barriers to parental or family participation in the education of a child with disabilities in Kenya. International Journal of Special Education , 33(1), 21–33.

Romley

J. A.

, Shah

A. K.

, Chung

P. J.

, Elliott

M. N.

, Vestal

K. D.

, & Schuster

M. A.

(2017). Family-provided health care for children with special health care needs. Pediatrics , 139(1), e20161287.

10.

Rothman

H. R.

, & Cosden

(1995). The relationship between self-perception of a learning disability and achievement, self-concept and social support. Learning Disability Quarterly , 18(3), 203–212.

11.

The Gazette of India. (1996). The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 . https://qps.nhsrcindia.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/PWD-Act-1995.pdf

12.

United Nations. (n.d.). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) . https://social.desa.un.org/issues/disability/crpd/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-crpd

13.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. (2006). https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convention_accessible_pdf.pdf