Special Education and Parents

Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes three articles pertaining to parental involvement in their child's special education program. The paper examines how there are several reasons why parents choose not to participate, such as denying that their child has mental retardation or because they feel that their input and suggestions are not welcomed by school personnel. The paper concludes that it is the responsibility of the school personnel to listen to the parents and to make any necessary changes so that the parents of the handicapped students can be involved in every aspect of their child's education.

From the Paper:

"The main topic that was researched in this article was the lack of involvement on the parents' behalf regarding their children's special education program. The authors assumed that the reason behind the lack of involvement was the parents' fear of becoming readily identified as one with a mentally retarded child. Of the parents who respond to the questionnaire, most were from the middle class, most were two parent families, and most were families with generally higher IQs. Parents from the middle class generally denied that their children had a retardation problem and they felt that their child would eventually outgrow the mental learning problems by the time they were adults."

Sample of Sources Used:

• McLoughlin, James A., McLoughlin, Robert, and Stewart, William. Advocacy for Parents of the Handicapped: A Professional Responsibility and Challenge. Learning Disabled Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Summer 1979) pp. 51-57.
• Abramson, Marty, Willson, Victor, Yoshida, Roland, and Hagerty, George. Parent's Perception of their Learning Disabled Child's Educational Performance. Learning Disabled Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Spring 1983), pp. 184-194
• Wadsworth, H.G., and Wadsworth, Joanna B. A Problem of Involvement with Parents of Mildly Retarded Children. The Family Coordinator, Vol. 20, No. 2 (April 1971), pp.141-147

More papers on Special Education and Parents:

• Article Review # 91940 : "Early Childhood Special Education and Parental Involvement"
• Term Paper # 5560 : "Collaboration between Special Education and General Education Teachers"
• Essay # 23340 : "Special Education"

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