Each child at a certain moment can ask why there are persons in society who move, hear, see or communicate not as the others and the role of parents here is not to mask the problem, not to avoid it, but to explain the situation to the child in a simple and clear way. In this regard, the parents can use a guidebook designed by the Association “Motivație”, which promotes the rights of persons with disabilities, IPN reports.

“It is very important for the parent to become an example for their child so that this perceives the person with disabilities not as a problem-person who is different from the others, but as a person with the same rights whom this accepts close to him and whom he will not try to avoid,” say the authors of the brochure.

The Association “Motivație” conducted an opinion poll among persons with disabilities and parents in order to find out what they think about the issue and to ask them to formulate recommendations based on the own experience.

“I didn’t hear people talking about this. This subject is a taboo in our country. The people are afraid that something similar could happen to them or their relatives and do not want to speak”. “I think it is not right for parents to avoid explaining the given situations to children or to feel embarrassed when children put such questions to them in the presence of a person with disabilities.” Such responses were given by respondents of the poll.

Specialists warn that it is not right when parents tell the children to shut up as the person with disability can hear them putting questions about him/her or when using such words as
“invalid, inapt or cripple” as they place a barrier and make the children feel that the given person is different and cannot live as an ordinary person and a discriminatory perception appears as a result.

The poll involved 39 respondents from Moldova aged mostly between 26 and 35.