Helping parents to become partners in the education of their handicapped child

Conclusions Educators are beginning to seek methods of improving parent-child relationships and school and parent relationships, as the evidence accrues and is assimilated, which shows how much more important is the child's family experience. The handicapped child brings the desirability of successful home and school links into clear focus, as the six-hour school day is clearly inadequate for the needs of many severely handicapped children, who require a consistent programme of developmental experiences from waking to sleeping. The only way in which the trust and confidence imposed by close relationships in the home may be continued in the school is by a mutual effort directed at common goals: the development of the child's capacity to learn and care for himself. Perhaps it is the similarity of the tasks undertaken in home and in school, with the severely and profoundly handicapped child, the severely and profoundly handicapped child, which has shown just how powerful the home-and-school combination can be when working in harmony. There are clearly lessons here for the education system at large. Perhaps the longstanding schism between parents and schools can be bridged in the next decades.The importance of social abilities, self-help skills and the confidence which all emanate from a successful family life, are emphasized by Smith and Sykes (1981) and others, who show that social competency is perhaps the key factor in determining vocational and post-school success for handicapped students. These competencies and confidence cannot come from school alone. The initiatives alluded to in this article, and described in full in the literature cited, show that schools have come a long way from believing that they alone can cope.Has written a number of studies on the development of education for the visually handicapped.     

Counternarratives of Moroccan parents in Belgium and The Netherlands: answering back to discrimination in education and society

Using ethnographic interviews this study reveals that a great deal of discontent and criticism surfaces when Moroccans who live in Belgium and the Netherlands speak about the education their children receive in these countries. They often see Western schools and society as immoral and racist while they portray themselves as first-class educators. Set against the backdrop of the dominant discourses in these countries as expressed in interviews with teachers, newspaper articles and political discourses, these parents’ utterances are interpreted as counternarratives through which they assert their moral responsibility and lay claim to their dignity in societies where they are too often framed in terms of problems and deficit.     

Sexuality education for young children: The role of parents

An important component of family life is sexuality education. Being comfortable with one's sexuality is an essential component of individual and family wellness. To this end, parents and teachers who intend to assist in young children's sexuality education must be comfortable and well informed.Nilufer P. Medora is Associate Professor, Department of Home Economics, California State University, Long Beach, CA. Stephan Wilson is Associate Professor, and Director, Center for Kentucky Children and Family Research, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY. 40506.     

Reading aloud: A way for parents to support their children's growth in literacy

Parents can form a vital link to literacy and later school success by encouraging literacy and language modeling in their daily communication with children. This article describes a study in Head Start classrooms in Florida and North Carolina where teachers used a book lending system and high quality books which they shared with children and families. Strategies for teachers to assist parents in providing support for emergent literacy are given. Ways to help families see the importance of their practices and encourage the use of these ideas as part of their daily routines are shared.     

Remission of depression in parents: links to healthy functioning in their children

This study examined whether improvement in parents' depression was linked with changes in their children's depressive symptoms and functioning. Participants were 223 parents and children ranging in age from 7 to 17 years old (M = 12.13, SD =2.31); 126 parents were in treatment for depression and 97 parents were nondepressed. Children were evaluated 6 times over 2 years. Changes in parents' depressive symptoms predicted changes in children's depressive symptoms over and above the effect of time; children's symptoms significantly predicted parents' symptoms. Trajectories of children's depressive symptoms differed significantly for children of remitted versus nonremitted depressed parents, and these differences were significantly predicted by their parents' level of depression. The relation between parents' and children's depressive symptoms was partially mediated by parental acceptance.     

Residential special education for children with severely challenging behaviours: the views of parents

Information was collected, through follow-up interviews with parents, on the impact of residential special education on forty-four children who attended a behaviourally-oriented school for children with severe learning disabilities and severely challenging behaviours. Parents noted significant improvements in self care and communication skills and reductions in challenging behaviour during their stay at the school. The majority also noted positive changes since their child left the school, although one in five parents noted a deterioration in challenging behaviour since placement ended. Postiive change at the school was attributed to behavioural programmes, staffing ratios and skills, consistency and intensity. However, since leaving, positive changes were attributed by parents to maturity. Accounts of parents are used to illustrate the variable patterns of overall change seen in the forty-four children.     

The involvement of Hong Kong parents in the education of their children: a validation of the Parents' Attributions and Perception Questionnaire

This study describes the validation and interpretation of the Parents' Attributions and Perception Questionnaire (PAPQ) using confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch modelling to report both the construct validity and category structure of the scales in the questionnaire. The PAPQ was developed to reflect the proposal that parents mediate the relationship between their children's social and psychological development, and their academic achievement, within the context of Hong Kong. The questionnaire consists of four subscales that reflect different interactions between parents and their children in relation to their children's academic‐related activities, including a Parental Attributions Scale, Parental Beliefs of Working Memory Scale, Parental Home and School Involvement Scale, and Parental Academic Expectations Scale. These subscales were supplemented by a fifth subscale that describes parents' socio‐economic background. The PAPQ was administered to 215 parents from four schools in Hong Kong. Results showed that the four subscales of the PAPQ are valid and reliable unidimensional measures of constructs related to parental role in the academic achievement of their children, thereby enabling future research to directly test Vygotsky's hypothesis.     

European Law: ending discrimination against girls in education

This article examines the ways in which the European Convention on Human Rights and its case‐law could be used to combat sexist education in State or private schools as well as the development of concepts of philosophical convictions, the duty of the State and the rights of children. Children could use the Convention if their parents imposed a limited education on them, and better opportunities were offered through the State. The provisions under the European Community, though more limited, apply to vocational education and training and access to it. Such access has implications for secondary schooling. European Community law on equality for women could be especially valuable. The difficulties of using English law are reviewed and aspects of English and European procedural law noted. I conclude with suggestions for a feminist strategy to improve girls’ education and that of other disadvantaged groups who could use similar arguments.     

美国家长参与学校教育管理的六项标准

美国的“全国家长教师协会”关于家长参与学校教育的六项标准于1998年5月公布。其内容包括隶校之问的相互交流、开展积极的家庭教育、家长参与对其子女学习的指导与帮助、家长对学校教育的志愿参与、索长参与学校的决策、学校和社区合作等方面以及与其相对应的素质指标和实施步骤。这六项标准不仅对其学校教育管理的规范化和开放化起到了很好的导向作用,而且也标示了其自上个世纪80年代开始的新一轮基础教育改革的态势和走向。     

Incest survivors: the relation of their perceptions of their parents and their own parenting attitudes

The present study examined the child-rearing attitudes of incest and nonincest child sexual abuse survivors and their perceptions of their own parents' behavior. From a sample of women with a history of child sexual abuse, 40 women with children completed questionnaires designed to assess their own and their parents' child-rearing behavior in terms of the dimensions of parental acceptance and control. The data indicated that women from incestuous backgrounds had more negative perceptions of their fathers and mothers in terms of acceptance and control than women abused by men who were not related to them. Moreover, incest victims who perceived their mothers negatively endorsed autonomy promotion in their own attitudes toward child rearing. The findings are discussed in terms of (1) the lack of positive parenting models when relations with both parents are experienced as negative, (2) incest survivors' conflicts about their own early maturity, and (3) the relation of these findings to the tendency for intergenerational repetition of father-daughter incest.     

Out of the classroom,into the courts: The legalization of Australian education and its implications for educational research

This paper argues, on the basis of comparative research and a study of recent Federal and State statute law and court decisions, that Australian education is becoming legalized. That is, new rights in education are being elaborated. New procedural protections enforced. The rule of law is developing in Australian education, where custom law used to prevail. This, the writers suggest, calls for new items on the educational research agenda.     

Changes in early adolescents' sense of responsibility to their parents in the United States and China: implications for academic functioning

This research examined American and Chinese children's sense of responsibility to their parents during early adolescence, with a focus on its implications for children's academic functioning. Four times over the seventh and eighth grades, 825 children (mean age = 12.73 years) in the United States and China reported on their sense of responsibility to their parents. Information on children's academic functioning was also collected from children as well as school records. Although children's sense of responsibility to their parents declined over the seventh and eighth grades in the United States, this was not the case in China. In both countries, children's sense of responsibility was predictive of enhanced academic functioning among children over time.