Found this:
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Divorce is hard on children, even those without special needs.15 Parental divorce is one of the most common significant risks to the healthy development of children today.16 Children whose parents are separated, divorced or widowed rather than married have a higher rate of eating disorders;17 increased use of drug use from early adolescence to adulthood;18 higher rate of incidents and accidents, injuries and illness;19 increased rate of teen pregnancy;20 worsening and complication of pre-existing medical issues;21 even decreased adherence to anti-retroviral medications in children and adults with HIV infection.22
Now add to this mix the issue of special needs, and there is a potential powder keg if the people dealing with these children are not educated on the danger areas. Many family lawyers and judges are handling these cases "on-the-fly."23 "Court professionals [are] largely ignorant of the unique and sensitive care required to competently address the special needs of these children when formulating parenting plans."24 This is not the fault of the family law lawyers and judges. State legislation which exists in the area of family law is virtually silent on the issue of special needs children. There is a corresponding lack of legal treatises and professional articles to guide lawyers and judges. As "little to nothing [has been] published on this topic in the professional literature as guidance, divorce professionals have been at a loss as to how to accurately and effectively identify and manage these cases."25 Considering the extremely high divorce rates among families with special needs children, if the courts and lawyers do not very quickly become educated on the issues inherent in handling Family Court cases involving special needs children, we will have a huge segment of our population that receives a gross miscarriage of justice. As this segment of the population includes some of the most vulnerable people in our society, we owe them a greater duty of care.
During the divorce, a special needs child can experience exacerbation of his symptoms.26 This may include short term withdrawal, regression, aggression, loss of language ability, loss of social skills, loss of toilet training, emotional outbursts, loss of academic skills, depression, self injury, hopelessness, suicidal ideation, running away, and worsened physical condition.27 Even children without special needs can experience night terrors, bed wetting, sleepwalking and other parasomnias during divorce.28
After the divorce, a special needs child can experience all of the above situations on a long-term or permanent basis, which may eventually result in institutionalization or even death of the child, either from suicide or from worsened physical condition. In addition, the parent who is the caregiver may quickly become so exhausted that institutional care may be necessary for the child.29
Another danger to special needs children is that during and after the divorce there may not be enough money to pay for all their medications, equipment, therapy, supplements, dietary needs and other needs. If the primary caregiver parent has to go back to work, increase their hours at work or take a second job, the child may have longer days in day care or before and after school care, received less time and nurturing from that parent, and be unable to participate in therapy because the parent who used to take them to therapy now has to be at work all day. Many special needs children end up in residential or institutional care after their parents divorce, simply because the primary caregiver parent has to be at work all day and can no longer take care of the child. This is a human tragedy."
Ref: http://www.stlouisfamilylawyer.com/Special-Needs.shtml
I'm not divorced. My hubby is in the military and deploys too. My daughter asks but she is 6 yrs old. My son 2 yr. does not like anyone but me.
I'm not divorced, but my husband is in the military and deploys. My son can't express that he wants daddy YET, and it does SEEM as if he doesn't not even care he has left, but when he sees another man in uniform he stops and stares pretty hard. My son's sleep schedule gets even wackier than it already is to!
I'm sure everything I just told you doesn't help you at all though
Best of luck and I will try to talk tomorrow.
Hi,
I was just wondering how autistic children deal with not seeing their father after a few days or weeks or months. Especially if they seek attention from their father. Has anyone ever gone through this. I have three small children, one with autism. He asks for "DADDY, DADDY". But his dad left the house because he needed peace and less stress. Are there behaviors I should look out for.
Diaz
I am a father who has to go out of town on Sunday night and work until Thursday when I arrive home usually around 8:oo PM. When I leave, he gives me a kiss goodbye and I tell him that I love him and that I will miss him Big Time. He tells me that he loves me too.