Author(s): Suneeta Verma and Dr. Meenakshi Singh

Abstract:
Being a parent is certainly a difficult task to undertake. Things become even more difficult when the child has a disability. A reality that a family with a disabled child must face and carry an additional burden of pressure and challenges to cope with life. As a result, it can disrupt a family's normal life as they have to provide extra care and resources. Parents of children with disabilities face challenges that can cause them to make mistakes in their children's education and can lead to learning difficulties and other problems. Keeping these points in mind the present study is planned to assess the level of problems faced by guardians of disabled children and factors associated with problem faced. Due to limited respondents in this area, only ten respondents were randomly selected from Arunodaya school of Jhansi City. A self structure questionnaire was provided to the guardians of these selected respondents. Questionnaire was explained by the researcher and parents were requested to fill each entry carefully. After collection of filled questionnaire, data was analyzed by calculating percentage, mean, median, S.D and Chi square. Results elucidated that equal respondents were in both category (Deaf & Dumb and Mentally Retarded). Majority of parents were between 25-40 years of age and most of the selected respondents were male. Majority of parents were educated up to matric. Equal percentage was seen in case of family type. Most of the parents were labour and have income below Rs. 50,000/-. Birth order of maximum respondents was second. Majority of respondent’s siblings with similar problem were in 2 and 3 in numbers. Most of the respondent’s (90%) problem was diagnosed before 12 month. Data further avowed that majority of parent’s (70%) were facing moderate level of problems. Data unveiled that type of disability (χ2= .038) and family type (χ2 = .038) had significant association with problems faced by guardians. Rest of the variables had no association.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/23957476.2024.v10.i3e.1707