Handicapped children hampered by denial

Handicapped children hampered by denial

JAKARTA (JP): The difficulties faced by mentally-handicapped
children are often compounded by parental denial that a problem
exists, a psychologist said on Saturday.

Parents' self-denial often means late detection of the child's
condition, according to Surastuti Nurdadi of the University of
Indonesia.

"Usually the problem is only detected when the child is
already at school, when the teacher notices that the child is
lagging behind," Surastuti told a seminar. "This is sad, because
earlier stimulation could have significantly helped the child."

Surastuti, discussing a problem which affects some 700,000
mentally-handicapped children in Indonesia, was one of the
speakers at a seminar on brain development of fetuses and
infants.

After the seminar, held by the Jakarta branch of the
Indonesian Pediatricians' Association, Surastuti told The Jakarta
Post that denial or self-deception on the part of parents is
caused by a strong wish to believe there is really nothing wrong
with their child.

With repeated consultations, parents may eventually accept
their child as he is and start learning how better to educate
him. "With poor families it is impossible to refer the child to
the (more expensive) special schools," said Surastuti, a staff
member of the University's Applied Psychology Institute.

"If the child is only a slow learner or mildly retarded, we
can refer him to regular schools, but ones in which the teachers
can -- hopefully -- pay greater attention to the child
concerned."

She told the seminar that a mentally-handicapped child has a
better chance of survival if he can be taught what behavior is
tolerated by his surroundings. She cited toilet training as an
example.

"If not, the child will be dependent on others forever," she
added.

The first part of the seminar focused on nutrition. A
nutritional biochemist from the World Health Organization,
Ricardo Uauy-Dagach, spoke of recent progress in the search for
the perfect infant formula.

He said new formula has overcome the main shortcoming of
existing formulas, namely the lack of docosahexaenoic acid, a
fatty acid essential for the development of the fetus' brain.

The new formula was introduced earlier this year in Europe and
Japan, Uauy-Dagach said. He said breast feeding was still very
important in countries like Indonesia, in which baby formula is
still expensive for many people.

While the new improved formula is not yet on the Indonesian
market, the head of the Jakarta branch of the Pediatrician's
Association, Hardiono D. Pusponegoro, said the existing products
for babies who cannot be breastfed are safe, provided that
parents administer them properly and in accordance with medical
advice.

He added that, under the Indonesian campaign on breastfeeding,
all maternity clinics and hospitals must let mothers feed their
babies first, before the infants are introduced to formula. (anr)