Parent Involvement Programs: Local Level Status and Influences

Abstract

A stratified random sample of 34 Minnesota early intervention programs for handicapped children, ages birth to 5 years, was surveyed in order to examine local level programming for parents. It was found that home visits are extensively utilized for parent programming while the child is under age 3, but that alternative options for involvement education, and support are offered by much smaller proportions of the programs. Seventy-five percent of those programs that do offer alternative parent programming do so less than monthly and only 11% report participation rates of 50% or more. Factors influencing parent participation were examined. These and other aspects of local level parent programming differ from reports of model programs and demonstration projects. Because parent involvement has been shown to influence critical gains made and maintained by handicapped young children, it is important that local level programming also involve parents. This was not happening with consistency.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berger, M. , & Fowlkes, M. (1980). Family intervention project: A family network model for serving young handicapped children. Young Children , 35(4), 22-31.

Bricker, D.D. & Dow, M.G. (1980). Early intervention with the young severely handicapped child. Journal of the Association of the Severely Handicapped , 5(2), 130-142.

Bromwich, R. (1981). Working with parents and infants. Baltimore: University Park Press.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1974). Is early intervention effective? A report on longitudinal evaluations of preschool programs (Volume 2). ( U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare Publication Number 76-30035 .) Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Cansler, D. (1978). Programs for parents of preschoolers-parent group activities designed to broaden the horizons of young children. Winston-Salem NC: Kaplan Press.

DeWeerd, J. (1981). Early education services for children with handicaps-where have we been, where are we going? Journal of the Division for Early Childhood, 2, 15-24.

Hayden, A.H. , & McGinness, G.D. (1977). Bases for early intervention . In E. Sontag , J. Smith , & N. Certo (Eds.), Educational programming for the severely and profoundly handicapped. Reston VA: The Council for Exceptional Children.

Hays, W.L. (1973). Statistics for the social sciences (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rein-hart, & Winston.

Karnes, J.B. , & Lee, R. (1978). What research and experience say to the teacher of exceptional children. (U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Publication Number 78-60985.) Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

10.

Karnes, M.B. , Linnemeyer, S.A. , & Shwedel, A.M. (1981). Survey of federally funded model programs for handicapped infants: Implications for research and practice. Journal of the Division for Early Childhood, 2, 25-39.

11.

Karnes, M.B. , & Teska, J.A. (1980). Toward successful parent involvement in programs for handicapped children. New Directions for Exceptional Children , 4, 85-111.

12.

Karnes, M.B. , & Zehrbach, R. (1975). Parent attitudes and education in the culture of poverty. Journal of Research and Development in Education , 8, 45-53.

13.

Kelly, J. (1982). Effects of intervention on caregiver-infant interaction when the infant is handicapped. Journal of the Division for Early Childhood, 5, 53-64.

14.

Menolascino, F.J. (1979). Handicapped children and youth: Current-future international perspectives and challenges. Exceptional Children , 46(3), 168-173.

15.

Menolascino, F.J. , & Coleman, R. (1980). Pilot parent program: Helping handicapped children through their parents. Child Psychiatry and Human Development , 11(1), 41-48.

16.

Ora, J. (1973). Involvement and training of parent and citizen workers in early education for the handicapped. In M. B. Karnes (Ed.), Not all little wagons are red. Reston VA: The Council for Exceptional Children.

17.

Schaefer, E.S. (1972). Parents as educators: Evidence from cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intervention research. Young Children, 27, 227-239.

18.

Souweine, J. , Cummins, S. , & Mazel, C. (1981). Mainstreaming-ideas for teaching young children . Amherst MA: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

19.

Welsh, M.M. , & Odum, C.H. (1981). Parent involvement in the education of the handicapped child. A review of the literature. Journal of the Division for Early Childhood, 3, 15-25.

20.

Wiegerink, R. , Hocutt, A. , Posante-Loro, R. , & Bristol, M. (1980). Parent involvement in early education programs for handicapped children. New Directions for Exceptional Children , 1, 67-86.

21.

Wiegerink, R. , Posante-Loro, R. , & Bristol, M. (1978). Parent involvement in programs for handicapped: Parent Involvement Survey Form. Chapel Hill: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, University of North Carolina .