III. More About the Children Available for Adoption, Page 5
Children with Physical Handicaps
Much of what I wrote in the previous section about children with mental handicaps applies equally to children with physical handicaps, and you should read it if you haven’t already.
Like mental and learning handicaps, physical handicaps come in all degrees of severity, visibility, and treatability. Any child coming into care is assessed for physical and mental handicaps as a matter of course, and any uncertainty will cause a delay in placement until it is resolved.
Some handicaps are genetically inherited, such as some kinds of deafness and cleft palate. Some are due to maternal disease or accidents in the womb, such as rubella-caused blindness and deafness, congenital syphilis or thalidomide-type limb deformities. Some, like cleft palate, are now often so easily treated, cause so little disruption to the child and after treatment are so nearly invisible, that they scarcely rate being classed as handicaps at all. Others, like unformed limbs or spina bifida, may be so well overcome with prosthesis or mobility aids and sheer ingenuity that they may not necessarily affect independent living as an adult. Others may be much less amenable to treatment or disability aids and may make the person dependent to varying degrees on carers, which means that prospective adopters may need to be strong and healthy. Some, like prominent severe birth marks, may not be physically disabling at all, but cause great mental distress to the individual. And like mental handicaps, physical handicaps can be caused by parental neglect or abuse, such as burning, scalding and untreated broken limbs.
One of the children we adopted as a baby was supposed to have a problem with projectile vomiting, according to her foster mother. My heart sank; I’d heard stories about the incredible mess this makes and was concerned about possible internal deformities she might have. We took her home anyway and never once did it happen. We think she had simply been put on solids too early by her foster mother and we waited several more months before reintroducing solids.
Again, like mental handicaps, children may be rejected at birth by parents who in other circumstances might have been able to cope, or simply because their parents couldn’t accept that their child was handicapped. While physical and mental handicaps sometimes go together, this is by no means always the case. In fact most physical handicaps have nothing to do with learning ability, although some, like deafness, may make communication more difficult and if not diagnosed they may make it seem as though the child has a learning handicap. What may seem like a physical handicap or illness may turn out not to be a problem at all.
It is highly likely that a child with a physical handicap will place strains on the family’s resources of time and money: doctor’s visits, hospital and home treatment, surgery, special equipment at home, special clothing, boarding school, mobility aids, modified cars and houses to accommodate wheelchairs, are all possible needs, depending on the handicap and its severity. As with mental handicaps, families who adopt physically handicapped children may be eligible for respite care and an enhanced adoption allowance, plus assistance to buy disability aids and to make adaptations to their home.
If you have a physical handicap yourself, or a brother or sister does, or you have a professional interest, you could find special satisfaction in parenting one of these children. And your own success in overcoming physical limitations would make you a role model for your child.
© Roger Ridley Fenton
