Effective Strategies For Involving Families in Intervention Efforts

Abstract

A focus on parents in the last two decades, and on families most recently, has been a notable and consistent trend within the field of special education. Although continuity is apparent in the sense of the overall emphasis, the treatment of and attitudes toward families have undergone a series of shifts over time. These changes and how they have affected parent involvement policy and practice have been described in some detail elsewhere (see . Nevertheless, an examination of the most recent shift in thinking on parent involvement--0ne in which all of us in the field are a part-can provide the framework for applying effective strategies in working with families. PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN EARLY INTERVENTIONThe importance of involving parents of handicapped children in early intervention efforts was a recurrent and undisputed theme of the 1970s. Research clearly demonstrated parents' significant contribution to child development. The major assumption underlying efforts to involve parents was that this contribution could be enhanced by teaching parents (parents as learners) how to better manage and teach (parents as teachers) their own children. Professionals' efforts to improve services for parents primarily focused on ways to increase parent participation in activities of this type and on development of various parent training curricula and materials. The search for a model parent involvement program that could be disseminated on a nationwide basis was an elusive goal that some sought.The reason for involving parents was to enhance child outcome. This was so in spite of ample evidence demonstrating that parents of handicapped children had needs of their own. They were shown to suffer from depression, marital discord, and chronic sorrow, among other things. Within special education the predominant approach to dealing with this issue was to provide parent support groups. But the parent involvement trend of the 1970s did not incorporate an understanding of how parent needs might interact with child needs or interfere or be at cross purposes with the professional desire to enlist parent support for the educational process.

Valued Member or Tolerated Participant: Parents' Experiences in Inclusive Early Childhood Settings

“…ticipation (Bailey, Buysse, Edmondson, & Smith, 1992;Bailey et aI., 1986;Turnbull & Turnbull, 1997) and strategies for increasing meaningful involvement (Winton, 1986;Winton & DiVenere, 1995). Only a limited number of studies have explored the nature and quality of parent involvement in the education of young children (Dinnebeil & Rule, 1994;Dinnebeil, Hale, & Rule, 1996;Gavidia-Payne & Stoneman, 1997;McWilliam, et aI., 1995;Winton & Turnbull, 1981).…”

A family centered training model proposal to meet the needs of parents having multiple disabled child

“…In order to satisfy the differing needs of parents, the needs of the family, difficulties they encounter, the way they cope with them and the support they have should be determined and after that the needs should be satisfied in the most effective way in the light of this information (Putten, Vlaskamp, Reynders & Nakken, 2005). Winton (1986) and Pang (2010) stated that the subjects such as the child's characteristics, her/his information, support and education needs, the nature of the interaction between the child and the parents, family's opinion towards raising the child and living with a child having disabilities and family's existing life cycle and conditions should be evaluated in order to determine the needs of the parents.…”