Mothers Of Learning Disabled Children Research Articles

‘To start talking phonics is crazy’: how parents understand ‘literacy’ in the lives of children with learning disabilities

ABSTRACT Children and young people with learning disabilities may not acquire the independent reading and writing skills which are conflated with ‘literacy’ in international educational policy, calling into question what ‘literacy’ means in the context of ‘special education’. Existing literature explores teacher perspectives, but less is known about parent views. This study conducts semi-structured interviews with two mothers of learning disabled children, drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis to trace inflections of policy, theory and practice-based discourses in their talk as they attempt to construct a meaningful version of ‘literacy’ in their children’s lives. It is argued that parents may align either with conventional discourses of autonomous literacy currently favoured in policy – which may result in disappointment at the child’s ‘inability’ – or with more expansive notions of ‘inclusive literacy’ which challenge and subvert conventional understandings of literate practice. Parental positioning, subjectivity and practice are interwoven with underpinning discursive constructions of ‘literacy’.

Perceived Support Among Iranian Mothers of Children with Learning Disability

This qualitative phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of perceived support by Iranian mothers who have children with learning disability. Twelve open interviews with six mothers of learning-disabled children (7-12 years of age) were audiotape-recorded with participants' consent. The interviews were transcribed and data were analyzed using Van Manen methodology. Two major themes emerged from 138 thematic sentences. The mothers'experiences could be interpreted as a sense of being in the light or being in the shade of support, with variations for different participants. The results indicate a need for more specialized and individually adjusted support for mothers in Iran.

‘People don't do odd, do they?’ mothers making sense of the reactions of others towards their learning disabled children in public places

This paper will demonstrate how a focus upon the practices and interactions in and of the everyday lives of mothers of learning disabled children can provide rich insights into the position of a group of children who may not be able to conform to appropriate ways of behaving and using space. This focus will illustrate how the spatial practices and experiences of the mothers and their children are shaped by the reactions of others present and the mothers' interpretations of, and responses to, those reactions. It will, moreover, raise questions about the position of older learning disabled children whose unconventional behaviour in public spaces can threaten disorder.

‘Busy Behaviour’ in the ‘Land of the Golden M’: Going Out with Learning Disabled Children in Public Places

Background Research suggests that the inclusion of learning disabled people is contingent, unsatisfactory and incomplete. This paper will take a step back and look at the experiences of mothers of learning disabled children in public places.Methods Seventeen women have taken part in the small scale qualitative study which used a combination of single and group interviews to explore their experiences in public places.Findings Four areas have been identified as having an impact upon the experiences of the mothers and children in public places: the effects of the childrens' learning impairments, structural constraints, the attitudes of others and the attitudes of the mothers.Conclusion The paper will conclude by asking if there is a role for alternative primary communities for learning disabled people and make suggestions for the development of a more ‘learning disabled child‐friendly’ environment.

Linking mothers’ expectations, feelings and support to emotional and behavioral problems in children with learning disabilities

Though psychological studies reveal that children with learning disabilities are at greater risk for behavioral and emotional disturbances than other children are little is known about factors related to behavioral and emotional difficulties in these children. It has been claimed that the psychological difficulties faced by children with learning problems are not necessarily simple linear correlates of their academic deficits, social information processing or organic dysfunctions. Recently a need to explore a role of family on behavioral – emotional problems in learning disabled children has been stressed. Maternal expectations and child’s goodness of fit within these expectations, mother’s involvement with child’s learning as well as mother’s disappointment and other emotional reactions toward a child have been hypothesized as contributing to the level of emotional and behavioral problems in children with learning disabilities.The aim of this study was to explore the interplay between behavioral and emotional problems and mother – child interactions, as measured by child’s goodness of fit level with maternal expectations, mother’s positive feelings, negative feelings toward child and feelings of dissatisfaction, involvement with child’s learning (support for homework, negative control of homework, encouragement of child, mother – child discussions about school and learning activities) in children with learning disabilities. The experimental group consisted of 102 children with learning disabilities. Subjects in the control group were average chieving children selected from the same classes that contained learning disabled children. Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 4/18; Achenbach, 1991) was used to collect data on children’s emotional and behavioral problems. Child’s goodness of fit within maternal expectations was assessed via Goodness of Fit Questionnaire (Feagans et al., 1991). Measures on mother’s feelings toward child and involvement with child’s learning were obtained via Scale of Parents’ Feelings toward child and Involvement with Child Learning Questionnaire, respectively.Comparative analysis of behavioral – emotional problems in the groups revealed that children with learning disabilities scored significantly higher on internalizing problems and total problems score but not on externalizing problems. As it was expected groups differed on mother – child interaction aspects: children with learning disabilities had lower goodness of fit level with maternal expectations, their mothers reported higher levels of negative feelings and more intensive dissatisfaction with themselves. In contrary, positive feelings did not differ between groups. Mothers of learning disabled children were more involved with their children learning: they provided more support, encouragement and negative control. Mother – child interactions variables had significant associations with problem behaviors in children with learning disabilities. Child’s level of goodness of fit with maternal expectations was significantly related to all CBCL 4/18 scores indicating that children with poorer fit had more behavioral – emotional problems. Mother’s negative feelings were the second consistent correlate of behavioral – emotional problems in both groups. As it was predicted, measures of mother’s involvement also correlated with problem behaviors in children with learning disabilities. Specifically, negative control was related to total problem scores on CBCL 4/18, and higher scores on mother – child discussions subscale were associated with lower scores on internalizing problems, externalizing problems and total problems.

Mothers' involvement in their learning disabled children schooling

Problem: This study deals with mothers' involvement in their learning disabled children schooling defined as different mothers' activities: support for doing homework, negative control of homework, mother-child discussions about learning and school activities, child reinforcement for learning. Mothers' involvement in child's schooling is discussed in the light of family factors - mother's feelings and attitudes toward the child, child's "goodness of fit" to mother's expectations, mother's education level, family status and stressful life events - possibly related to particular forms of mothers' involvement.Sample: Experimental group consisted of 92 primary school children (8-11 years old) diagnosed as learning disabled and control group - 90 average achievers from the same classes as children from experimental group.Evaluation tools: Mothers' involvement with child?s learning was assessed via Mothers' Involvement in Child's Schooling Scale (constructed by author of article), mothers - feelings and attitudes toward the child - via Mothers - Feelings Scale (constructed by author of article), child's "goodness of fit" to mother's expectations - via technique recommended by Feagans and al. (1991). Data on family status, mother's education level and family stressful life events were gathered through family questionnaire made by author of article.Results: Results revealed that mothers of learning disabled children are more controlling as well as give more positive reinforcement and support for child's learning when compared to mothers of average achievers. Mothers of learning disabled children report higher degree of dissatisfaction with themselves as mothers as well as more negative feelings toward child. Mother's positive feelings toward child and child' high fit within mother's expectations positively correlated with child reinforcement, mother-child discussions about learning and school as well as with general level of mother's involvement in child's schooling. Negative control of homework was higher when child's fit within mother's expectations was low. Negative control had positive statistically significant correlation with mother's negative feelings toward child. Other family features such as stressful live events, family status is to be considered in the examination of mother's involvement with their learning disabled children schooling.

Self-report of family histories of learning difficulties.

Self-reports of learning difficulties by parents of reading disabled children may be inflated because of recall bias. A retrospective study of the association between specific reading disabilities and familial reports of learning difficulties indicated the relative odds of being reading disabled for those whose relatives reported learning difficulties compared with children whose relatives did not report learning difficulties was statistically significant if fathers or siblings reported learning difficulties. No significant association was found between mothers' self-reports of learning difficulties and a diagnosis of specific learning disabilities in their children. The results support the association between specific reading disabilities and self-reported histories of academic problems in the father or siblings, but not in mothers of learning disabled children. The results suggest that reports of learning difficulties among mothers of reading disabled children may be inflated because of recall bias.

Coping and defense mechanisms of mothers of learning disabled children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways in which mothers of learning disabled children cope with and defend against the diagnosis and manifestations of their child's problem, as well as to explore the mothers' reactions and experience with the process of diagnosis and treatment in a clinic setting. Results indicated that the mothers generally evidenced coping mechanisms when involved with medical, social and educational agencies, and were able to appropriately obtain services for their child. However, coping functions broke down and gave way to more defensive mechanisms in direct confrontation with the child: projection, denial of the problem and displacement of anger on to the child were seen. Mothers, contrary to traditional attitudes, experienced relief at receiving a diagnosis, confirming their suspicions rather than experiencing shock or grief.

Conversational interactions between mothers and learning-disabled or nondisabled children during a problem-solving task.

This study focused on mother-child interactions during a problem-solving task to determine whether (a) mothers of learning-disabled children engage in conversational buffering to facilitate their child's participation in the task, and (b) whether learning-disabled children differ from nondisabled children in their use of language with their mothers. The results of this study provide some evidence that mothers of both learning-disabled and nondisabled children engage in conversational buffering, although there were few differences between the mothers of the learning-disabled and nondisabled children. Differences between learning-disabled and nondisabled children showed that the learning-disabled were more likely to agree with and less likely to disagree with their mothers than were the nondisabled children. These findings provide some evidence of maternal conversational buffering and suggest that learning-disabled children's previously reported unassertive conversational style in peer interactions extends to talk with their mothers.

Mothers' Evaluations of Their Learning-Disabled Children

Mothers of learning-disabled and nondisabled children were interviewed to determine their perceptions of their child's strengths and weaknesses, causal attributions for these strengths and weaknesses, predictions for future performance, and evaluations of their child relative to other children. In comparison with mothers of nondisabled children, mothers of learning-disabled children described their children more negatively on each of the areas. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the success of intervention programs.

Mothers' Attributions for their Learning Disabled Child's Successes and Failures

The attributions of mothers of learning disabled and nondisabled children about the causes of their child's successes and failures were assessed. The results indicated that, compared to mothers of nondisabled children, the mothers of learning disabled children attributed successes less to ability and more to luck, while attributing failures more to a lack of ability and less to bad luck. Responses indicated that mothers of learning disabled children were aware of their child's attributions for performances in reading, and that they belittled their own ability to make things run smoothly at home. Results are discussed in terms of ways in which parents may foster more adaptive attributions in their children.

Maternal Child Rearing Attitudes Associated with Learning Disabilities

Compared to 35 mothers of normal achievers, 35 mothers of learning disabled children exhibited a pattern of more controlling, but less hostile child rearing attitudes on the Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PARI). No correlation was found between strict control and hostility for mothers of the learning disabled children suggesting they may perceive a need for providing the structure needed for their children's typically disorganized functioning, but want it to be free of hostile feelings. This pattern, which, appears to be independent of both the age and sex of the learning disabled child, argues favorably for mothers assuming a parent-as-teacher role.

Parent training techniques: Effects of lecture-roleplaying followed by feedback and self-recording

A group parent training program was applied in an analog situation to five mothers of learning disabled children to assess its effect upon three classes of verbal responses (i.e. reinforcements, commands and questions). The training was conducted in two phases. The first phase, lecture-roleplaying, employed written material, lectures, and roleplaying as training techniques. The second phase, feedback, utilized post-interaction feedback from experimenters, self-recording from audiotapes, and recording of other parent-child interactions. Behavioral measures after the first phase showed small changes from baseline, while the same measures taken after the feedback phase revealed significant differences for each of the target behaviors. Behavioral changes observed at the end of training were maintained over a 30-week follow-up. The results suggest that, although other training techniques may increase parental knowledge of how to respond, immediate feedback and self-recording appear necessary to ensure the acquisition of these responses.