Published Paper Details:

Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD), earlier termed as Mental Retardation, is a disability condition that is characterised by having significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and in adaptive behaviour, that covers everyday social and practical skills of a person. In today's society the problem of Intellectual and Developmental Disability has become an alarming issue globally. It has drawn the attention of parents, teachers, professionals and psychologists in both the developed as well as the developing countries. In recent years a sharp increase in the number of studies, on working with parents of Intellectually and Developmentally Disabled children, have been brought out with valuable information. The parents as an agency of socialisation have great impact on the personality development of the child. Raising a child who had Intellectual and Developmental Disability, requires lots of emotional strength, flexibility, time and energy commitment. The parents of Intellectually and Developmentally Disable children have various psychological problems. The present study was aimed to identify various psychosocial problems faced by the parents who have children with Intellectual and Developmental Disability. Twenty (20) parents (mother/father) of Children with IDD were selected through purposive sampling from a child development centre located in Raiganj, Uttar Dinajpur district. Parents Problem Inventory (PPI), developed by Dr. Anju Singh, was used in order to collect the data for the current study. The collected data were analysed by Descriptive Statistics. Result showed that having a child with Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD) had huge effect on their parents. Most parents struggled with various psychosocial problems. Most prevalent problems faced by parents were psychological, physical, social, child management, school and vocational problems, profession advice and financial problems. The study also indicated that mothers faced more problems related to psychological, physical, social, child Management and psychosomatic problems, while fathers faced more financial problems, school and vocational problem, and profession advice problems. Conclusion of the study suggested that there was need for early diagnosis, prompt treatment and counselling for psychological problems in parents as well as proper profession advice, and proper information about Govt benefits and legislation's regarding child's welfare and financial help.