Parents as experts: the position of parents of children with profound multiple disabilities.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Parents of children with disabilities are increasingly considered as experts in the field of care. Their expertise can deliver an important contribution towards planning their child's care and education. The law is increasingly taking this factor into consideration. On the one hand, parents already possess an abundance of know-how; on the other, they still have to increase their knowledge and sometimes their skills too.

AIM:
The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the supposition that co-operation between parents and professionals must meet certain criteria if parents are to receive a proper chance of using their existing knowledge, while at the same time adding to their skills.

DESIGN:
A questionnaire was sent to 723 parents of children with profound multiple disabilities enquiring about their relationship with the professionals at their child's school for special education. Subsequently, for one group of parents, a method that recognizes the parents' expertise and assigns them a formal role was introduced. For the other group, no change in method occurred.

RESULTS:
The results demonstrate that parents regard co-operation in a favourable light. Comparing both groups after a year, the expected effect of the method (a better rating of the co-operation by the parents) could not be demonstrated. This is probably a result of a problem with the questionnaire used in this study.

CONCLUSION:
Other studies, however, appear to support our supposition.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: de Geeter, K I (KI); Poppes, P (P); Vlaskamp, C (C);

Affiliation: Department of Special Education, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Child: care, health and development (Child Care Health Dev), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Nov; vol 28 (issue 6) : pp 443-53

Dates: Created 2003/02/05; Completed 2003/03/05; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12568473, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Adult
Child
Child Care - standards
Child Rearing
Child, Preschool
Decision Making

Disabled Children - education; rehabilitation
Education, Special - methods
Humans
Infant
Parenting
Professional-Family Relations
Questionnaires

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.