An evaluation of a pre-school service for children with disabilities and their parents
by
 
Uzundemir, Ender, author.

Title
An evaluation of a pre-school service for children with disabilities and their parents

Author
Uzundemir, Ender, author.

ISBN
9780438043671

Personal Author
Uzundemir, Ender, author.

Physical Description
1 electronic resource (622 pages)

General Note
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 76-08C.

Abstract
A case-study was conducted in a Centre for disabled pre-school children between the ages of 0 to 6 in Izmir, Turkey. The efficacy of the educational services on children's development was investigated. Teaching materials of Portage Guide to Early Education were used for the developmental assessment, teaching and evaluation of children's skills in the Infant Stimulation, Socialisation, Language, Self-Help, Cognitive and Motor sections of the Portage Checklist. Effects of various factors: (1) type/s of educational services provided, (2) duration of the educational input, (3) severity of the children's disabilities, and (4) degree of parental cooperation in teaching, on children's profile of learning and development were considered. The Centre provided various educational and support services for the parents of disabled children through "Shared Educational Responsibility Approach". Therefore, the second part of the investigation focused on identifying parents' feelings and experiences about having a disabled child in order to provide services according to their emotional and social expectations. The Approach aimed to increase parents' competence and frequency of experiencing positive feelings while decreasing their negative feelings. In addition, interviews and questionnaires were used to evaluate parents' satisfaction with the Centre's Approach and their suggestions for improvement of the existing services. Results reveal only 12 out of 37 children (32%) to have made above average progress in the Socialisation, Language, Self-Help, Cognitive and Motor sections of the Portage Guide to Early Education Checklist. Similarly, small increases were observed in the positive feelings experienced by mothers during their involvement in the Programme. Comparison of the mothers' and fathers' initial feelings about having a disabled child reveal fathers' as having experiencing positive feelings more frequently. Results of the Final Questionnaire portrayed above average number of parents to be highly satisfied with the staff, the education programme and additional activities provided by the Centre. All in all, results of this research on children's development and parental satisfaction have been promising to a degree. Yet, numerous studies elaborating the efficacy of such services need to be done, especially in developing countries like Turkey, to show the possibility of establishing and conducting better quality services for disabled children and their parents.

Local Note
School code: 1543

Subject Term
Special education.
 
Early childhood education.
 
Disability studies.
 
Developmental psychology.

Added Corporate Author
The University of Manchester (United Kingdom). Faculty of Education.

Electronic Access
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqm&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:10867571


Shelf NumberItem BarcodeShelf LocationShelf LocationHolding Information
XX(684304.1)684304-1001Proquest E-Thesis CollectionProquest E-Thesis Collection