Abstract
A lot has been written about the psycho-social issues and challenges of children with mental retardation. The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of psycho-social issues and challenges of children with mental retardation. The study utilized qualitative research tools to explore the deep feelings of the participants. Purposive sampling technique and case study employed as a major study tools. The study used in-depth interview, observation and FGD. The collected data were organized and analyzed through qualitative research approach by using thematic analysis. Findings obtained from the study showed that children with mental retardation are facing different psychosocial challenges like stigma, discrimination, isolation, blame, shame, frustration, feeling of upset, self-insult, loneliness, losing respect, despairing (feeling of no hope), insult, anger and sadness. The study also found that the perception parents of children with mental retardation regarding the causes of retardation was changed from religious beliefs to possible causes of mental retardation as a result of the rehabilitation services. Further, praying, helping each other, reaction formation (insulting who insulted them), developing wishful thinking, and limiting one's interaction were some of the mechanisms explored from this study. The study finally concludes some measures to curb the negative belief systems of the communities towards the children with mental retardation. The study has a great implication for social work practice in the area of policy formulation, advocacy, community mobilization, empowerment, service provision, assessment and research in the areas of disability.
Highlights
Every father and mothers, who are going to have a child, expect and wish a healthy, intelligent and nice baby
Parental reactions by having a child with mental retardation: The result of this study indicates that, when parents of children with mental retardation realized that their child is mental retarded, they react in bad situation and faced high psychological problem such as hopeless, sad and disappointment
Community Understands about Mental Retardation: Like the participants of semi-structured interview did, the participants who participated in the FGD of this study offered their communities definition/understanding of mental retardation, as most stated, which they defined it as an illness which makes the persons’ out of use and which could not be treated
Summary
Every father and mothers, who are going to have a child, expect and wish a healthy, intelligent and nice baby. When a child with mental retardation puts his/her step in the science of life, their parents, in their first contact with the child, encounter with a lot of “what to dos” and “what have to dos” Existence of a mentally retarded infant will cause a change in the behavior of family members. Mental retardation, is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills [21]. Intelligence is both genetically and environmentally determined. Children born to parents with mental retardation are at increased risk of a range of developmental disabilities, but clear genetic transmission of mental retardation is unusual. Advances in genetics, such as chromosomal microarray analysis, have increased the likelihood of identifying the cause of mental retardation
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