Families with Special Needs

I found today's lecture about Adoption and Families with Special Needs interesting. More for the part that we barely covered about families with special needs. I always knew that you would need to change the way you interacted and dealt with a family member with special needs, but I never thought about how that would apply to Family Systems Theory.

Personally, I have a 18 year old cousin with downs syndrome. When I was younger I also thought she was half my age because I didn't understand why she wasn't like the rest of us developmentally. Now once I've grown older I realize how uniquely specially and caring people with disabilities truly are. Her immediate family didn't see her disability as an inconvenience, instead they viewed her just the same as any other member of the family. Obviously, she couldn't do the all same activities that her siblings did throughout school. But she was included in every single family event and inside jokes between the siblings. She actually probably came up with most of the jokes herself. But her family definitely shared all the characteristics of a strong family, while adapting their roles, behaviors, and boundaries to accommodate what she was able to physically do, and mentally understand. I would have to say that my cousin's family is a great example of how to adapt to someone with special needs.