Ch.5 Families' Historical and Current Roles
Parents as the cause of their child's disability
Families as Recipients of Professionals' Decisions
Families as Organization Members
Families as service Developers
Families as Teachers
Families as political advocates
Parents as Education Decision Makers
Families as Partners
Parents as the cause of their child's disability
- Some disabilities in children can be from their parents behavior, like the use of drugs and alcohol.
- The book suggests not blaming parents and seeking out the positive contributions to their child.
Families as Recipients of Professionals' Decisions
- When professionals see themselves as the center of decision making it can intimidate the parents and make them angry.
- Being equal while making decisions and not expecting the parents to be the passive recipients of decisions will create a trusting partnership.
Families as Organization Members
- Families join together to share emotional support with others experiencing similar things in life. There are groups for specific disabilities for families to better relate to one another.
- Share information about organizations with parents.
Families as service Developers
- Some families prefer developing, operating, and controlling the services for their children.
- Support parents as just parents because their service development shouldn't be expected
Families as Teachers
- It's important to partner with families to find out what will be helpful to become more informed decision makers. All members should be involved, not just the parents.
Families as political advocates
- Families know their child's disability best so they are often successful advocates at the federal, state, and local levels. Families have had great affects on special education today.
Parents as Education Decision Makers
- Decision making has gone from mainly the professionals input to mainly the families input. Professionals should go to the families for their input on any decisions being made.
Families as Partners
- Relationships with families should involve each member, not just the parents. They bring together different perspectives and resources, and by making many resources available.
Application: As a future educator it is important for me to apply these concepts to my career. I will use this information about the characteristics and circumstances of families to better understand and assist my students as well as create effective partnerships with the families of students. Each child comes from a different family with a different background, so I will not make assumptions about the student and work together with the whole family to provide assistance to the child.