Parental Training in Families of Children with Disabilities Testing and Analyzing Study on Parents

209 Pages·2017·5.19 MB·Turkish

EMPATHY
Parental Training in Families of Children with Disabilities

Testing and Analyzing Study on Parents of Disabled Children

Engelli Çocuk Ailelerinde Ebeveyn Eğitimi

Engelli Çocuk Ebeveynleri için Test ve Analiz Raporu

This handbook has been elaborated within the framework of the European Union Erasmus+
Programme EMPATHY Project (Parental Training in Families of Children with Disabilities),
which has been carried out by Turkish National Agency and has been published with financial
support of the European Commission. The European Commission or Turkish National Agency
is not responsible for any content in the book.

Bu el kitabı, Türkiye Ulusal Ajansı tarafından yürütülen Avrupa Birliği Erasmus+ Programı
EMPATHY Projesi (Engelli Çocuk Ebeveynleri için Test ve Analiz Raporu) kapsamında
hazırlanmış ve Avrupa Komisyonu’nun finansal desteğiyle yayınlanmıştır. Kitapta yer alan
herhangi bir içerikten Avrupa Komisyonu veya Türkiye Ulusal Ajansı sorumlu değildir.

 Outer cover of this book was created by making use of template design of Raftel/Freepik.

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Testing and Analyzing Study for Parents of
Disabled Children*

*Publication by Dost Special Education and Rehabilitation Center

Strategic Partnership
Project No: 2015-1-TR01-KA204-02194

With the financial support of the European Union, Erasmus+
Programme...

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INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1. Survey ....................................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2. Background and Objectives ................................................................................................................. 4
2. PROCEDURE .............................................................................................................................................. 7
3. RESULTS ....................................................................................................................................................... 8
3.1. Participants ............................................................................................................................................. 8
3.2. Answers of the Questionnaire and Their Analysis ............................................................................ 8
4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 80
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 86
ANNEX (Questionnaire Form)…………………………….…………………………………………………………….…….96

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1. INTRODUCTION
This testing report is the product of a project entitled “Parental Training in Families of
Children with Disabilities – EMPATHY” funded with support from the European
Commission under the Erasmus+ Program. This report represents the findings of the
survey undertaken with parents of disabled children in EMPATHY partner countries:
Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. It is concerned with background of
the parents and their children, psychological effects of disability and ways of coping
with problems and needs of the families. Its ultimate aim is to provide training activities

to the parents.
1.1. Survey
The survey comprised of a postal self-completion questionnaire for parents of disabled
children in Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey and the United Kingdom. It was expected that
some of the parents would need some assistance with completion of the survey. They
were helped when they needed.
1.2. Background and Objectives
Parents of disabled children undergo serious difficulties starting from time they learn
their children’s disability. They experience psychological, social and financial problems.
Although many families of individuals with disabilities manage their lives as effectively
as other families, some such families may require counseling or therapy to facilitate the
integration of the disabled child into the family and the social community. Current
studies have demonstrated that there are parental needs at the time of presentation of
diagnosis that are not being met and that parent contact with helping professionals must
not end following the diagnostic period.1 One reason why training with the family of a
child with a mental disorder is so important is that the child's adjustment and
rehabilitative progress is surely affected by the family's strengths, weaknesses, and
emotional reactions. Besides, such trainings can guide these families about their
behaviors and approaches to disabled children. The aim of this project is to train families
about learning of disabling conditions in their children and strength their endurance in
society through innovative training instruments such as e-learning methods and on-line
training.
Research carried out over a number of years provides a consistent picture of the
experiences and needs of parents of disabled children. When a child has disability,
parents experience a host of extra challenges as they attempt to meet their care giving
and employment responsibilities: stigma, increased stress, child care difficulties, and
lack of workplace supports. It has been widely recognized that parents of children with

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disabilities experience a pattern of feelings and responding similar to that exhibited by
other parents in that situation. Using the knowledge of the stages and typical reactions,
the well-trained professional staff can often provide valuable support to the family
during this crisis situation. The support and information provided by a counselor and
parent support groups or advocacy groups can facilitate the adjustment process and help
to ease the family's progress through an extremely stressful situation.
A broad and integrated training programme that considers the needs of the family should
be available. The project has three most-important products, namely, training module,
lifelong learning intervention strategies and web-based collaboration system. The
products strongly support the EU priorities by improving quality assurance systems, by
developing training modules considering the disabled people's parent needs, and by
providing cooperation between the Adult Education (AE) and the world of work.
The main objective of the project, EMPATHY is to train families of disabled children
about coping up with their problems in psychological, social, economic life; providing
them with supporting systems; leading them to deal with the problems associated with
their children's disabilities and development of an understanding and acceptance of the
infant's difference from other children. These aims are addressed to the development of
the quality and attractiveness of adult education systems and practices and should foster
the development of high quality pathways leading to smooth transitions to work and/or
progression to further and higher education and promote guidance and counseling at all
levels; enhance the governance and attractiveness of adult education systems through
increased cooperation with social partners and all relevant target groups. EMPATHY
provides new knowledge and expertise to the families of children with disabilities,
through creating new training modules for target group. The project will use new
methods, models, approaches and it's an original project rather than a transfer project.
The project will enhance digital integration in learning, teaching and training. A web-
based collaboration system will be developed where disabled families can interact with
each other and with experts; the gap between caregivers and the affected child will be
minimized through an exchange of knowledge and experience within the therapeutic
group interactions. Project results will help disabled families to be successful in their
life, to be confident about their disabled child and about finding a job, and especially to
be motivated about their future. This will be done by developing their skills and
qualifications through developing and implementing of innovative adult education
modules and materials.
Currently, this project will develop the competencies, skills and self esteem of disabled
families. Additionally, at a European level, this project will add value in terms of adult
education to millions disabled families in Europe.

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The immediate objectives of the project are:
Psychologically and socially supporting families with disabled children
To create innovative systems to help them cope with economic problems based
on the their child’s obstacles
To create an internet-based platform on which the families of children with
disabilities and experts can interact with each other
Review current applications in partner countries about vocational education of
parents with disabled children
To develop an analyze regarding specific vocational training needs of parents
with disabled children
Developing a psychosocial support program for improving parental
responsibilities and capabilities of them
Training them on issues such as legal rights of disabled people, disability types,
how to deal with disability related problems (including inspirational real life
stories in national and international concept), psychological approaches for
specific disability types, national and European social facilities and supports for
disabled children
To disseminate practices and methodologies on lifelong learning regarding social
integration and career guidance of disabled people.
The project will increase awareness of developing
methodologies/modules/materials on adult training of families of children with
disability.
The project will add unique value with following innovations:
 The project will increase awareness of developing methodologies, modules,
materials on adult training of families of disabled children;
 The project will provide new approaches to experts, trainers and organizations of
adult trainers;
 Project results and developed materials will help families of disabled children to
cope with their problems such as economic, social, psychological obstacles;
 Raise awareness about disability on all parts of society.
The project will develop unique products (e.g., web-based collaboration system for
families, lifelong learning intervention strategies, book about the project subject) for
specified target group, which are families of children with disability therapists and
rehabilitation counselors, policy and decision maker, and managerial staff from
rehabilitation centers. Project website, web based collaboration platform will be in
English and partners native language, thus wide range of people benefit from developed

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materials. Also, project materials and developed strategies will be on display in project
website and e-learning system, each person who needs information can reach the
products.
This Testing Report is written in order to determine and analyze needs and demands of
parents of children with disabilities; so as to present them comprehensive training
activities through preparing fulfilling, appropriate and sufficient curricula.
2. PROCEDURE
Empathy Project partners from Turkey, Hungary, Slovakia and the United Kingdom
were asked to conduct a parents’ questionnaire to sufficient number of families of
disabled children. The questionnaire was prepared by specialists in Dost and
demonstrated to partners in a transnational project meeting; they made some
recommendations and questionnaire was changed according to partner suggestions.
Then, it was translated into English and was sent to partners. Turkish partners carried
out the questionnaire to parents of 100 different disabled children. Dost and Arihan are
special education and rehabilitation centers, which are dedicated to children with special
educational needs. Keçiören Municipality has several previous works, projects and
experiences on disabled people. Special Education Department of Necmettin Erbakan
University is also experienced in disabled children both in academic and practical terms.
Hence, it was easy for these partners to reach these families and conduct the
questionnaire to sufficient number of parents. Hungarian partner Human Profess made
the questionnaire to parents of 19 children. They also work with people with disabilities
in several projects. In similar way, Slovakian partner Spoluprácou pre lepšiu budúcnosť
– Veľký Meder (Teamwork for a Better Future) conducted the questionnaire to parents
of 25 children and British partner Merseyside Expanding Horizons conducted it to 10
parents in the United Kingdom. Thus, the questionnaire was conducted to 154 parents in
total.
The questionnaire basically aimed to define the parents’ educational needs and demands.
It included questions about age level and disability type of the child, educational
background of the parents, monthly family income, working situation of the parents and
their professions, thoughts about their child’s disability, impact of the disability on them,
opinions of the parents in support level of relatives, society and government, attitudes of
the society towards them and their children, suitability of public places to disabled
persons, basic concerns of parents and their educational needs and demands.
Questionnaire results can be used in studies of policy makers. The questionnaire consists
of multiple choice questions, as well as open-end questions.

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Parents were helped in filling the questionnaire since there were some questions hard to
understand. Although they were helped when filling, questionnaire forms on which open
end questions were answered were restricted. However, due to the large number of
participants, we managed to induce enough information from sufficient number of
answered questions.
Parents’ answers were analyzed at question base. Relations among the results of
questions were shown and consistencies and inconsistencies were emphasized. After
answers and connections analyzed, possible reasons for the tendency of the answers was
scrutinized. In most of the analyses, a brief literature review on the topic was added and
results of similar studies indicated. Although the number of questionnaire participants
was enough to draw conclusions in total, results of similar studies were also shown in
order to widen readers’ perspective and ensure the accuracy of our results. Reader
should pay attention to low number of questionnaire participants at country level; for
Slovakia (25), Hungary (19) and the United Kingdom (10). Hence, drawing general
conclusions for these countries separately would be inconsistent and inaccurate. We
could draw general conclusions for the aggregate of these, as European total (54), and
Turkey separately. Turkish sample of questionnaire participants (100) were enough to be
able to induce general results for Turkey.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Participants
In total 154 disadvantaged women from Turkey, Hungary, Slovakia and the United
Kingdom participated in this study. There were 100 participants from Turkey, 19
participants from Hungary, 25 participants from Slovakia and 10 participants from the
United Kingdom (see Table – 1).

Table -1: Number of Questionnaire Participants
Country
Number of participant parents
Turkey 100
Hungary 19
Slovakia 25
United Kingdom 10
Total 154

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3.2. Answers of the Questionnaire and Their Analysis
Question-1: Gender of your disabled child
Most of the questionnaire participants’ children were female in both Turkey and the EU
partners. In total, 93 of the children were males and 59 of them were females.
One might think of the reason of such a big gap between participant parents of males
and parents of female parents. When we look at Graph-1, we see that aside from
Hungary, all country’ samples include more males than females. However, the
difference is mainly caused by Turkish participants. Most probable explanation for this
is: Turkish partners conducted the questionnaire mostly to parents who have children
continuing Special Education and Rehabilitation Centers and students of these centers
60.6 % males and 39.4 % females (226,606 and 147,336, respectively), for 2016 – 2017
school year.2 In consideration of this information, it can be said that subjects of the study
is reflecting well of parents of disabled children who continue to special education,
rather than parents of all disabled children. That clearly argues against the aggregate
data of Turkey; which indicate 57.2 % of all disabled persons were females, whereas the
same rate for males is 42.8 %.3

Gender gaps of other countries are not too large. According to the data, 58% of the
people with disability are women and 42% are men in Slovak Republic;4 hence study

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