Help for Exceptional Parents

For the parents of the 6,000,000 U.S. children who are physically, intellectually, perceptually or emotionally disabled, life is what Clinical Psychologist Lewis Klebanoff of Boston describes as "a surrealist nightmare of anxiety, perplexity and fatigue." In the hope of easing that nightmare, Klebanoff and two other Boston psychologists, Stanley Klein and Maxwell Schleifer, have just published the first issue of a new bimonthly called The Exceptional Parent. The magazine offers advice to help "exceptional" children live full lives--not in segregated centers but "in the mainstream of their communities."

The psychologist-editors, who spent $30,000 of their own money to start the magazine, have put together a first issue of jargon-free articles, which supplement the knowledge of professionals with the special expertise of parents and of the disabled themselves. One piece, the first of a series on recreation, explains how to improvise active wheelchair games that are not only enjoyable, but good for letting off steam. Another details a system for teaching the use of public transportation. The same article deals forthrightly with a highly sensitive and seldom-mentioned topic: the intermittent and "very human" parental wish "to get rid of or lose their disabled child."

In a different vein, an adult quadriplegic writes about "Solving Hopeless Problems" (he types by striking the keys with a stick held in his mouth), and explains his philosophy: "One adjusts to realities. I try to forge ahead, aware that life may never be full but determined never to accept less than I must." With a similar emphasis on facing facts, an article titled "How Different Is My Child?" counsels against overprotection--which can deprive a youngster of the experiences he needs to become emotionally independent--and against overexpectation, which can make a child feel that "he cannot do anything, no one likes him, and he will never be any good."

Bold Goal. Beyond all this, Psychologists Klebanoff, Klein and Schleifer have a bold and touching goal: to alter the temper of the nation by influencing normal as well as abnormal children. Explains Klebanoff: "Maybe that's the mission of these disabled kids--if normal schoolkids see a child in braces struggling to overcome his problems, maybe things won't look so bad to them, and maybe they'll be inspired to help. I hope it might make a more gentle America. It sure can't hurt."

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