Determining the requirements of families of children with special needs

Abstract

This study aims to determine the requirements of parents of children with special needs and the factors that influence those requirements by using the “family needs survey” developed by Bailey and Simeonsson (The Journal of Special Education 22(1):117–127, 1988) adapted for Turkish researchers by Cavkaytar et al. (Ankara Universitesi Egitim Bilimleri Fakultesi Ozel Egitim Dergisi 15(2):1–12, 2014). In the study the survey model was used to investigate the current requirements of parents. The population of the study consisted of families whose children are currently in one of five special education centres or one of four special education and rehabilitation centres which function under the Ministry of Education in the TRNC in the academic year 2015–2016. With the aim of reaching the whole of the population, no sampling methods were used in the research. The analysis was conducted with research evaluation instruments distributed to a total of 279 participants within the scope of the study and with the collection of 116 of the instruments. Welch’s t test, Welch/Anova and Gabriel and Hochber’s GT2 tests were used to analyse the data. The majority of the participants consisted of mothers and middle-aged parents. In general, the families’ response to the FNS scale was that were unsure of their requirements. However, they had a need for information.