Date of Award
1-1-1991
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
Polly Peterson
Keywords
Blindness, Child Advocacy, Disability, Exceptional Persons, Low Vision, Parent Attitudes, Parent Education, Parent Participation, Parent School Relationships, Partial Vision, Social Skills, Special Education, Visual Disability, Visual Impairments.
Abstract
This practicum was designed to address the lack of parental involvement in the educational program of students with visual disabilities. Parent participation, mandated by Federal legislation for handicapped children, has frequently been absent in the programs involving children with visual disabilities. The writer's goals were to educate parents concerning the delivery and types of services available to students with visual disabilities, the nature of visual disabilities, the components of the IEP development, and of legislation concerning Children with Visual Disabilities. A secondary goal was to increase and improve parent-school relationships in order to reduce the previous adversarial relationships between parents and schools. The writer developed a video presentation on parent involvement in the educational program and presented it to four parent groups and one teacher group. The writer assessed the participation of the sample of parents at the end of the implementation period. Communication with parents was maintained by telephone, U.S. mail. and personal contact. All parents reported an increase in their understanding of the educational program for students with visual disabilities and showed a resulting increase in participation in the school program. Parents noted that medical information from doctors failed to refer them to educational programs for early intervention services and that parent education was useful in increasing positive feelings toward the school program.