Training Paraprofessionals to Support Students with Disabilities: A Literature Review

The purpose of this literature review is to describe intervention research studies in which paraprofessionals received training applicable to student with disabilities. Thirty studies were systematically reviewed to identify (a) characteristics of study participants and settings, (b) characteristics of paraprofessional training and paraprofessional-implemented intervention evaluated within these studies, (c) quality of the studies, and (d) implications for practice and areas for future research. Overall, paraprofessional training and subsequent intervention with students yielded positive outcomes. Training sessions typically were delivered by workshops, lectures, or classes and classroom-based training. However, numerous studies failed to demonstrate characteristics of study quality.     

The Power of Publication: A Journey Into Authorship by One Child With Learning Disabilities

This article describes the journey of Daniel, a child with learning difficulties, into authorship through one-to-one tutoring. It discusses the powerful and positive influence the introduction of book making and publication had on Daniel's enthusiasm for writing and writing fluency. All this is set within a discussion of recent work on writing process teaching.     

Grandparents' Involvement and Support in Families with Children with Disabilities

This study reviews recent literature related to grandparents' involvement and support for grandchildren with disabilities and their grandchildrens' family. The literature reveals that grandparents' initial reactions are similar to parents' reactions of shock, anger, and grief when they learn a grandchild has a disability. Over time, grandparents become involved in their grandchild's family system, providing practical and emotional support. Factors that influence grandparents' support and involvement include residential proximity, their level of understanding of their grandchild's disability, and the affective solidarity between them and their adult child who is the parent of the grandchild. Grandparents' support and involvement is promoted when they have access to accurate information regarding their grandchild's disability, experience good communication exists between them and their adult child, and when support groups or workshops are available to them in their community. A variety of unexplored areas are identified where additional and longitudinal research may yield new and interesting information regarding our understanding of factors that effect grandparents' involvement and support in families with children with disabilities.     

Home Environment and Family Resources to Support Literacy Interaction: Examples From Families of Children With Disabilities

Research Findings: Research on early literacy development within the family focuses primarily on parent–child interactions as they use literacy materials, typically books. However, features of the home environment and organization of family life, which provide the framework within which these interactions occur, are rarely investigated. These variables include space; time; family members' roles, responsibilities, and relationships; whether literacy activities are routines; and influences of community and culture. In this exploratory study, these physical, social, and symbolic resources of the family environment were measured using a home tour, photographs, book-reading observation, and an interview during two visits to six families who had children with mild to moderate disabilities. The data generated by these methods were then used to complete a summary measure, the Home Literacy Resource Checklist, for each family. The results indicated that the families who had previously reported reading to their child 1 to 3 times per week differed from those who had reported reading daily in resources such as help from people outside of the immediate family, existence of book-reading routines, a predictable daily schedule, use of the library, and presence of literacy materials. Practice or Policy: Further development of these measures and their use with a larger and more diverse sample are warranted so that practical knowledge about home and family life can contribute to interventions designed to improve the quantity and quality of family book reading.     

Caregiver Burden and Social Support among Mothers Raising Children with Developmental Disabilities in South Korea

This study examines caregiver burden and social supports perceived by mothers raising children with developmental disabilities in South Korea. Mothers residing in the metropolitan areas of Seoul (n = 181) responded to the mail survey with a 56.6% response rate. Respondents expressed a high level of overall burden, particularly in financial domains. Greater subjective caregiver burden for these mothers was associated with: increased disability‐related costs; maternal factors such as being younger and having higher educational attainment; and less social support. Extra cost related to disabilities was the strongest predictor of increased caregiver burden. Findings indicate that social support can reduce this burden. Implications for the practices of social service agencies and policy are discussed.     

Providing High-Quality Support Services to Home-Based Child Care: A Conceptual Model and Literature Review

ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Home-based child care accounts for a significant proportion of nonparental child care arrangements for young children in the United States. Yet the early care and education field lacks clear models or pathways for how to improve quality in these settings. The conceptual model presented here articulates the components of high-quality support to child care providers; related factors; and hypothesized provider, family, and child outcomes. The model is based on a literature review of research on home-based child care, home visiting, early childhood mental health consultation, coaching, and family services. We hypothesize that high-quality support to home-based child care that offers relationship-based services focused on quality caregiving (individual home visiting and group supports such as training and networking) and sustainability (materials, equipment, referrals) is most likely to positively impact quality caregiving for children and families. Practice or Policy: Current federal efforts and policy initiatives to increase the supply and quality of infant–toddler child care focus on the development of systems that support home-based providers. The conceptual model of high-quality support described here will inform future program development and research on how to improve quality in home-based child care for the millions of low-income children in these settings.     

Using Systems Theory to Understand and Respond to Family Influences on Children's Bullying Behavior: Friendly Schools Friendly Families Program

This article addresses Systems Theory as it applies to school-age children's bullying behavior. It focuses on the interrelationships, mutual influences, and dynamics of relationships within the family, and how these may affect children's behavior toward their peers. The theory helps to explain the ways family patterns are reflected in children's negative interactions with peers, particularly bullying behavior. As such, Systems Theory was used to guide development of the content and strategies that formed the family component of Friendly Schools Friendly Families, a whole-school bullying prevention intervention. The intervention was designed to systematically target parenting factors identified as protective of bullying behavior and other problem behaviors, including parent–child communication, parent modelling, parenting style, parent bullying attitudes and beliefs, normative standards about bullying, family management techniques, connectedness, and cohesion. This whole-school program thus actively engaged and enhanced the self-efficacy of both parents and teachers, and was found to be effective in reducing bullying behavior.     

The Social Status of Children with Disabilities and Their Families as Determined by Census Data

Russia’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has necessitated that regular monitoring studies of the social situation of people with disabilities and families with disabled members be conducted. These studies have exacerbated the issue of obtaining accessible data that is suitable for these purposes. The article investigates specific concerns related to Russian disability statistics and the place of census data in compiling these statistics. The latter are of interest to the study of the social position of disabled persons in Russia. However, they have never been used for these purposes before. This article focuses on the analysis of the socioeconomic situation of families with disabled children as one of the most vulnerable groups in the population. We analyze the accuracy of the census estimates of the contingent of children with disabilities as compared against administrative data, and discover that the number of disabled children has been underreported, due to the inaccuracy of the disability criterion. We have assessed the composition of families with disabled children, the level of education and employment of parents, the livelihoods of these families, and the level of access of children to education on the basis of the recently released microdata from the 2002 and 2010 Russian Censuses. In light of these characteristics, we are able to demonstrate existing inequalities in the social status of families with disabled children in comparison with other families with children without disabilities. In conclusion, having determined the scope of the problem, we demonstrate the possibility for developing disability statistics as the foundation for implementing the principles of the CRPD. In particular, we propose methods for providing a social definition of disability by assessing functional status through continuous and sample surveys of the population. The use of standard international practices would allow assessing the social status of families with disabled children in a comparative perspective.     

Self-actualization: The Heart and Soul of a Potential-based Life Skills Program for a Child with Multiple Disabilities

Although every child with disabilities may come to self-actualization by different means and measurements it is, nevertheless, an important goal. The child with disabilities may be guided toward her goal of self-actualization by being encouraged to find her individual strengths and capacities, and by being assisted to successfully interact with her environment. This article explores the use of the scientific method to support the development of a potential-based program that has nurtured self-actualization and the joy of learning for a child with multiple disabilities and chronic illness.     

A Self-Evaluation by Agencies Providing Residential Support Regarding Capacity to Support Persons with Disabilities and Challenging Behaviours

This study presents the findings of a survey in which agencies providing residential support to persons with disabilities reported their capacity to support persons with disabilities who present challenging behaviours. A total of 46 agencies completed the self-report; 62 were initially distributed. Summary variables were calculated for two independent measures, Organisational Stability and Administrative Leadership, and four dependent measures, Staff Structures, Staff Training, Measurements Systems, and Behavioural Systems. Agencies reported between 71% (Organisational Stability) and 83% (Administrative Leadership) of the features as present. The measures were all inter-correlated; Administrative Leadership was found to be more highly correlated with the dependent measures, and to better predict the dependent measures. Specific areas of low capacity were noted in all dependent measures, including features such as inadequate resources for behaviour support, reported by 40% of the responding agencies. Implications of the findings are presented for building agency capacity and community-based support of persons with disabilities.     

Mothering in Families With and Without a Child with Disability

This paper describes some features of a study which compares and contrasts mothers’ perceptions of their family life in three different family environments, those without a child with disability and those families who live with a child with an intellectual or physical disability. All families have children in the middle childhood period allowing the mothers to reflect on earlier experiences and changes in their family life. Mothers’ psychological characteristics are explored in terms of the coping resources they utilise when meeting stressful life situations in their family and how their personal resilience and vulnerability is related to these individual coping resources.     

Empowering Culturally Diverse Families of Young Children with Disabilities: The Double ABCX Model

Many culturally diverse families and their young children with disabilities or delays are not provided appropriate early intervention/early childhood special education services, especially not in a culturally sensitive and meaningful context. Families with diverse backgrounds often feel helpless and stressful because their values are not respected, concerns are not identified, and therefore their needs are not met due to the lack of support from appropriate resources. The purpose of this article is to provide a positive strategy to empower families of young children with special needs and who are from culturally diverse backgrounds through a family-centered, strength-focused family system model: Double ABCX model. Procedures of implementing the double ABCX model was described and discussed. Supported by previous research and the current case studies, the double ABCX family adaptation model has found to be an effective approach to serving diverse families of children with disabilities.     

The Effectiveness of Adding a Parent Involvement Component to an Existing Center-Based Program for Children with Disabilities and Their Families

The belief that parent involvement in early intervention programs increases developmental benefits for children with disabilities and their families is widely accepted. However, very few studies have directly investigated the effects of parent involvement on child and/or family outcomes in a comparative design. For the present study, children in an early intervention program were randomly assigned to either of two groups. One group continued to receive the center- based program, and the other received the center-based program plus a specific parent involvement program. The type of parent involvement most frequently reported in the literature (White,Taylor, & Moss, 1992) was implemented. Weekly parent meetings for 15 weeks focused on teaching parents how to implement intervention at home, provided information on other topics, and facilitated social support. Assessment of child and family functioning took place prior to and immediately after the parent involvement program, as well as longitudinally over a four-year period. No immediate or long-term benefits for the children or their families were found. Findings are compared with findings of other studies. The implications of the findings in evaluating the rationales for this type of parent involvement program are discussed.     

The Effectiveness of Adding a Parent Involvement Component to an Existing Center-Based Program for Children with Disabilities and Their Families

The belief that parent involvement in early intervention programs increases developmental benefits for children with disabilities and their families is widely accepted. However, very few studies have directly investigated the effects of parent involvement on child and/or family outcomes in a comparative design. For the present study, children in an early intervention program were randomly assigned to either of two groups. One group continued to receive the center- based program, and the other received the center-based program plus a specific parent involvement program. The type of parent involvement most frequently reported in the literature (White,Taylor, & Moss, 1992) was implemented. Weekly parent meetings for 15 weeks focused on teaching parents how to implement intervention at home, provided information on other topics, and facilitated social support. Assessment of child and family functioning took place prior to and immediately after the parent involvement program, as well as longitudinally over a four-year period. No immediate or long-term benefits for the children or their families were found. Findings are compared with findings of other studies. The implications of the findings in evaluating the rationales for this type of parent involvement program are discussed.     

The Strengthening Families Initiative and Child Care Quality Improvement: How Strengthening Families Influenced Change in Child Care Programs in One State

Research Findings: This study investigated how the Strengthening Families through Early Care and Education initiative in Illinois (SFI) influenced change in 4 child care programs. Findings indicate that SFI influenced quality improvements through 4 primary pathways: (a) Learning Networks, (b) the quality of training, (c) the engagement of program directors, and (e) the organizational climate at programs. SFI's multilevel model of implementation was key to its effectiveness. Two barriers to improving family partnership practices were identified: lack of cultural competence and a negative organizational climate. Practice or Policy: First, quality improvement and professional development efforts are likely to be more effective in promoting real change when they target multiple levels of the context in and around child care programs. SFI's multilevel implementation approach is a model. Second, quality improvement efforts in the area of family engagement may be more effective when specific attention is given to strategies for creating a supportive organizational climate and collegial relationships among staff. Relationships within programs set the tone for relationships with families. Third, cultural competence requires increased attention to efforts to improve the quality of family partnership practices. A focus on organizational cultural competence may provide the workplace environment necessary to support culturally competent practice among program staff.     

The Potentials of Using Mobile Technology in Teaching Individuals with Learning Disabilities: A Review of Special Education Technology Literature

Within the literature, a respectful number of studies related to the use of assistive technologies for special education, resulting in an enormous agenda that encompasses various types of assistive technology applied across disabilities in different types of curricula. These disabilities include, but are not limited to: learning disabilities, mild, moderate and severe mental retardation, speech and communication disorders, hearing and speaking disabilities, and autism Hence, under the intertwined and overlapping umbrellas of assistive technologies and special education, mobile technology finds its promising, new spot on the surface of emerging assistive technologies in the field of special education. This paper addresses the potentials of using mobile technology in teaching individuals with developmental disorders based on current literature.