“Special needs” is a term describing people in need of assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental or psychological. “Special needs” is currently used to describe children who need special care because of their development, behavior and health condition, caused by the particularities in their childhood . This applies largely to children deprived of parental care and those in institutional care.
The types of special needs vary in severity as follows: autism, Down syndrome, hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, severe mental retardation, which most often combine medical, mental and
psychiatric disabilities conceivably considered severe. Special needs caused by medical disabilities which do not affect the cognitive development and mental condition of the child are considered milder. Examples of these are renal failure, heart malformation, visual disturbances or lacking of one or more limbs. For mild disabilities are also considered those resulting from temporary and curable health disorders (cleft lip, strabismus), mental development and mental state, such as the states of hyperactivity and attention deficit as well as failure in neuro-psychological development.
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The list of children with special need is included in the register of international adoption of children with habitual residence in Bulgaria.
The list has included children with serious diagnoses such as hydrocephalus, Down syndrome, a severe form of cerebral palsy, blindness. Because of their health condition, these children need special care and social services to improve their quality of life and enable them to develop the capacity of their capabilities. Therefore these children are included in the list of children with special needs.
The list has included children suffering from various disorders leading to their overall health impairments, with no harm on their mental development, behavior and emotions. Those are diseases such as renal failure, heart malformation, polycystic. These children may need medical care, medical intervention, medical treatment or just special raising, but they have the same level of mental development as any other children.
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The list of children with special needs has included children suffering from dysfunction of certain organs and systems, needing the establishment of special conditions for their development, raising and education. These are, for example, the children suffering from visual or hearing impairments and motor skills disorders. They may be in need of attending specialized schools, specialized facilities or specialized help to move in space. Yet, in most cases they have fully preserved their intellectual capacity. Moreover, they often show exceptional gifts and talents in various fields.
The list of children with special needs has included many children who need more care solely because of some disorders in their development, behavior or health due to the particularities of their childhood . These children often suffer from strabismus, ADHD, attention deficit or delay in the neuro-psychological development, and the care of their raising in a family environment most often leads to full compensation and overcoming the difficulties they are experiencing.
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The health condition of children between the time of preparation of their documents for adoption registration and the time of meeting their prospective adoptive parents has often changed. It is due to the fact that during this period the children were provided with a variety of social services, leading to a change in their condition. Given the importance of this fact, the procedure in Bulgaria provides an opportunity for professionals and adoptive parents to get acquainted with the current health condition of the child at the time of selecting a suitable adoptive parent. Such a possibility for the other children listed in the adoption register is not available.
The fact that meanwhile some children from the list of children with special needs have improved their health condition leads to including children on this list, whose general condition is better than the condition of other children registered for adoption.
As in many places in the world errors in the diagnosis of children’s’ health status occur in our country as well; diagnoses can be incorrect, imprecise or exaggerated. Therefore, the possibility to get acquainted with the children can help the assessment of their actual health status and the decision adoptive parents make to adopt a particular child.
