Grandparents are feeling the strain of helping families support children with SEN, according to a survey by the charity Netbuddy and Gransnet, a social networking site for grandparents.
More than 85 per cent of grandparents say they provide essential support to their offspring who have children with SEN, and over 95 per cent of parents support this view. Roughly ten per cent of grandparents report that they provide more than 40 hours of childcare per week.
However, despite being highly involved in the care, many grandparents say they find the experience difficult, with 30 per cent saying they don’t feel confident caring for their grandchild all the time and 44 per cent saying that they only partly understand their grandchild’s condition. Nearly half say they spend more time with their grandchild with SEN than with any of their other grandchildren.
Over 90 per cent of grandparents and parents surveyed believe that there should be more professional support for grandparents of children with SEN.
While many are positive about the effects of the support they provide, grandparents also appear to be concerned about the consequences of parenting a child with SEN for their own offspring. One respondent said that “Although I grieve for all the things my grandson will never be able to do, the pain of seeing my daughter hurting so much is terrible.”
