Life comes with its set of challenges for everyone. But it's people with developmental disabilities who have it the roughest, so you may need to show extra compassion when working with them.
You may have to work with one at home, in the office or at an organization where you volunteer.
Unfortunately, if you are not equipped to work with them, the experience can be quite frustrating for you but mostly for them. If you are having a developmentally disabled person come into your life and have no clue how to work with them, this guide offers ideal strategies that you can borrow, so keep reading.
What Is a Developmental Disability?
Developmental disability is a condition that affects a person's physical, intellectual, and emotional abilities from birth or early childhood and can be caused by genetic, environmental or other factors.
Such conditions include intellectual disability, formerly known as mental retardation, autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome. A disability doesn't necessarily mean a person cannot become a productive member of society. They only need a little support and compassion from non-disabled individuals.
Strategies for Working with Developmentally Disabled Individuals
Be Patient and Understanding
If you have never interacted with a developmentally disabled individual at close range, your first interactions can be challenging. First, you will notice that they can be very difficult to work with because of their limitations.
That said, patience and understanding are must-have virtues. Understand that they will be relatively different from the people you are being interacted with. If it is in a job setting, understand they may have problems getting the hang of how things work, and a little understanding and patience is all it takes to help them fit in.
Get Training or Attend Workshops
If your career takes you toward dealing with developmentally challenged individuals, you may want to get training on handling them. Some positions may demand that you get specialized training. Even when it is not a statutory requirement, specialized training will also be an added advantage.
If you cannot go the specialized certification route, consider attending seminars and workshops on handling persons with the type of disabilities you are working with to stay up to day with emerging evidence-based interventions and approaches.
Lastly, you may also leverage online forums where people in similar positions like you exchange ideas. Besides learning from these forums, there may be experts in such forums whose knowledge you can seek to learn.
Leverage Technology to Run a Developmentally Disabled Persons Institution
Dealing with many disabled persons, like in an institutional setting, can be quite challenging, considering that disabled persons' institutions will house the most severe cases and thus demand a high level of care.
State governments have laws concerning how to run such an institution, including the number of patients to host in a given area, the number of nurses on the clock based on patient population, and the number of non-medical staff employees at any given time.
Running an institution's activities, such as patient and employee management, can be a hustle and potentially eat into your business's bottom line. But you can leverage technologies such as software for managing developmentally disabled patients to make your work easier while not spending as much as you would if you hired more personnel.
Facilitate
Living with a disability means having limitations in what an individual can do. Sometimes these limitations can be overcome by facilitating them, for example, by improving premises or office accessibility to people with physical disabilities.
At other times, you may try incorporating visual aids to help with communication. Different types of disabilities result in different limitations, so you must consider the limitations you are dealing with when developing facilitative strategies.
