Understanding Services for Developmental Disabilities

As a parent, learning that your child has developmental disabilities can be a life altering moment in time and can cause a devastating chain reaction of events. These events have the potential to change family priorities and structure, hurt relationships, deplete financial savings and stability, and emotionally drain everyone intimately involved with you and your child. How do you find human services programs, agencies, or advocates, whose primary job is to help you provide everything your child needs? It certainly can be an overwhelming barrier, but it's the first step in giving you, your child, and your family a plan of action, goals, success, good mental health and bringing everyone back together.

What are Developmental Disabilities?

The word disability means something different to anyone you ask. Officially, having a developmental disability means the disability appears before someone turns 22 years old and causes a chronic life long or extended duration impairment. These disabilities, which may not be seen, can be physical, intellectual, neurological, psychiatric (or others), and the disability has a strong need for services or special care. (Developmental Disabilities Act, section 102[8])

What are Services?

Developmental disability services come from someone outside your family unit who works in Human Services. This support is referred to as “services” and comes from medical, educational, and federal and state government programs.

Barriers to Services

Running into barriers while attempting to locate and navigate services for developmental disabilities are not because you don't want to help your child, or don't care - chances are, you are facing a wide rage of emotions. Some barriers that take an emotiona...

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You can find programs like this in all major cities and county offices.

Empowering Families

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References

AHRC of New York City

ARISE, Inc.

De Boer, A., Pijl, S.J. Minnaert, A. (2010). Attitudes of parents towards inclusive education: A review of the literature. European Journal of Special Needs Education, Vol. 25, No. 2,

165-181.

The ARC of the United States -

The NYS Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD)

Watson, S.L. (2008). Something you have to do – Why do parents of children with developmental disabilities seek a differential diagnosis? Developmental Disabilities

Bulletin, Vol. 36, No. 1, 168-198.

Ziolko, M. (1991). Counseling parents of children with disabilities: A review of the literature and implications for practice. The Journal of Rehabilitation, Vol. 57.