Parents and Schools: Creating a Successful Partnership for Students with Special Needs [Paperback]

Anne M. Bauer (Author), Thomas M. Shea (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2002 | ISBN-10: 013018540X | ISBN-13: 978-0130185402 | Edition: 1

The challenges of teaching a child who has a disability are many and varied. Nothing helps the process more than strong collaboration between the child's teachers and the child's parents. This new book is all about creating that collaboration, maintaining it, and using it to help children who have disabilities reach their personal educational potential. The authors take a developmental approach to their subject, focusing on the uniqueness of each family and each child from infancy, through the primary grades, to middle school, high school, and adulthood. Throughout the book, the “voices” of real parents lend authenticity to the material; and the essential role of the family in the education of its children is seen as of paramount importance. This book also addresses current educational trends toward maximum inclusion for all children—children with ethnic, cultural, and linguistic differences as well as those with physical and mental disabilities. For Special Education teachers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The challenges of teaching a child who has a disability are many and varied. Nothing helps the process more than strong collaboration between the child's teachers and the child's parents. This new book is all about creating that collaboration, maintaining it, and using it to help children who have disabilities reach their personal educational potential. The authors take a developmental approach to their subject, focusing on the uniqueness of each family and each child from infancy, through the primary grades, to middle school, high school, and adulthood. Throughout the book, the “voices” of real parents lend authenticity to the material; and the essential role of the family in the education of its children is seen as of paramount importance. This book also addresses current educational trends toward maximum inclusion for all children—children with ethnic, cultural, and linguistic differences as well as those with physical and mental disabilities. For Special Education teachers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The majority of teacher preparation programs in colleges and universities have a course about families. A few have a course, or at least a part of a course, related to families with members with disabilities. All students entering general and special education teacher preparation programs have personal experience as a member of a family. A few of these students have experience in a family with a member with a disability.

Many students have preconceived notions about how they will engage families in the education of their children. These notions are often based on personal experiences with their teachers or the experiences of their parents and family. Such experiences may positively or negatively bias their approach to families. They may have preconceived ideas about how they will conduct their first open house, welcome families and children to their classroom, and so on. They may have vague ideas of how they will write their first parent letter, conduct their first conference, and make their first home visit. They may dread one or all of these difficult but necessary and required activities due to a lack of understanding and preparation with regard to families in general, and family members with disabilities in particular.

Many students will work with families who are very dissimilar from their own family. Not only must they work with families from diverse racial, cultural, and linguistic groups and with families with members with disabilities, but they frequently work with single-parent families, blended families, foster families, and other family constellations. In addition, present-day teacher education students will work in classrooms and schools as well as live and work in communities very unlike those in which they were raised. They will be teaching children from backgrounds and with life experiences that diverge greatly from theirs.

This text focuses on the uniqueness of each family that challenges teachers as they practice in public schools. We strive to communicate to the reader the contribution each child and family can make to the community of learning. We write from a social systems perspective, which offers insight into the developmental contexts of each child and each family. Engaging families in the education of their children is not a simple task. There is no philosopher's stone or recipe. By taking a developmental perspective, we demonstrate the changing needs of families as their children with disabilities progress from infancy to adulthood.

This text presents the voices of real parents as they communicate the pleasures and problems of raising and educating a family member with disabilities. The text is based not only on the professional literature but also on our experiences as parents and professionals. We encourage the reader to empathize with those raising children with disabilities and challenge the reader to understand the complexities of working with families. As we researched and prepared this text, we were constantly amazed by the tenacity and resilience of the families represented here.

In the first section of the text, we provide background information into working with families on behalf of their children. In Chapter 1, we describe the role of context and the unique settings in which each child develops. In Chapter 2, we further explore the aspects of the developmental context, with a discussion of diversity related to family involvement. Chapter 3 describes a different aspect of the context for families with members with a disability, that is, their legal rights and responsibilities. Chapter 4 covers some of the persistent assumptions related to the impact of identification and diagnosis of disability on families. The literature is discussed and integrated in the social systems perspective.

In the next two chapters, we shift the focus of the discussion to implementation of parent engagement. Chapter 5 presents a model for family involvement. This is accomplished through the systematic application of a case study to the various steps in the model. Chapter 6 provides information on the challenges of collaboration, and increasing the potential for effective communication.

The second section of the text provides a developmental perspective on family involvement. Each of the chapters in this section uses the voices of parents as they tell the story of their engagement in their child's education. Chapter 7 describes the issues of early intervention services and working with parents of very young children with disabilities. Chapter 8 addresses the families of children in preschool and kindergarten, and the significant changes that occur in families in the transition to kindergarten and first grade. Subsequent chapters, 9 through 12, each infused with the voices of families, address primary grades, middle and junior high school, secondary school, and families of adults with disabilities.

We owe a considerable debt to the families who lent their voices to this project. Sally Gantz, Mef Diesel, Franky and Carl Foley, Riley Humler, Paul Bauer, and Mary UIrich opened their hearts and experiences to us on behalf of other families of children with disabilities and those professionals preparing to work with families of children with disabilities. We thank them most sincerely for their openness, honesty, and commitment. We would also like to thank our friend and editor, Ann Davis, who has consistently and over many years and texts been supportive and made significant contributions to our efforts on behalf of children, adults, and families. Finally, we wish to thank our reviewers—Greg Conderman, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire; Robert Oritz, California State University-Fullerton; and Alec F Peck, Boston College—for their help.

Anne M. Bauer
Thomas M. Shea

Product Details

• Paperback: 221 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (August 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 013018540X
• ISBN-13: 978-0130185402
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #972,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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