My family is a blended two parent family with three children. There are two girls and the newest addition a little brother, Emerson. Mom and Dad were recently married last year, both the girls refer to their stepfather as Dad as he has been with Mom for several years and their biological fathers are not present. Mom and Dad were told prenatally that Emerson would be born with a cleft palate. Emerson arrived at the end of November with a bilateral cleft palate.
Early childhood services that would support my family would include: early intervention services, pediatric specialists, special needs early childhood care and education, and mental health services for the family.
A bilateral cleft palate is the incomplete formation of the lip and the pallet. This requires extensive surgeries and the therapies. Initially the infant will require a feeding tube as they are unable to suck. Sometimes cleft palate occurs as part of a syndrome and other times it is simply genetic. Until Emerson was born it was impossible to know the extent of the cleft palate or whether it was part of a syndrome or genetic. Testing was done immediately after birth and it was determined that Emerson’s cleft palate was due to genetics only.
Babies with a cleft palate require initially feeding tubes, syringe feeding after surgeries, multiple surgeries to repair the lip and palate, dental repair, and speech therapy.
Emerson’s family is a low-income family. Due to Emerson’s special needs the family has decided to have Dad stay home with Emerson while Mom returned to work as a Preschool Teacher. Since there are no childcare facilities in their area that could meet the special needs for Emerson’s feeding issues both parents feel better if one of them is home with him until his surgeries are complete and feeding is no longer an issue. Part of Emerson’s feeding issues is maintaining a very specific feeding schedule and ensuring that Emerson has a specific amount of formula or breast milk each day, increasing the amount each week.
Dad is from Honduras and Spanish is his primary language, with English being his second language. Mom is learning Spanish but her primary language is English. Dad speaks both English and Spanish to all of the children in the household. The family has been impacted by sociocultural context of being a blended multicultural family. Economic cutbacks to early intervention and early childhood services have impacted the family by the lack of services of available in their area.
Great story Toni and it is believable. I felt kind of sad and thankful as I have began this assignment. It really made me gain understanding of what people with children special needs are dealing with. I actually have a person that I work with who has dealt with the disease that I chose for my family. How do you think that politics have or will affect this family?
ReplyDeleteToni
ReplyDeleteThe whole time we have been in this Master's program I have felt we have a special connection. I want you to read my hypothetical family situation and then you will know why. It must be a Head Start thing. All of us must think alike! I am looking forward to seeing your post on the discussion board.
Toni,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of painting a picture of the family, and it is realistic. I would not know what to do in this situation other than to work with doctors and social services for funding to help correct his cleft lip. Great work!