المشاركة الوالدية و معوقاتها في خدمات التدخل المبكر للأطفال الصم و ضعاف السمع في الكويت

Abstract EN

This study aimed to know reality of parental participation and its barriers in early intervention services for deaf and hard of hearing children in Kuwait from the point of view of professional, and parents, the researcher used a descriptive method and developed the study instrument(a questionnaire).

sample of the study consisted of (97) parents of children who are deaf or hard of hearing and (88) professionals.

results of the study showed a high level of parental participation in early intervention services.

domains which had the most participation from parents were: agreeing on referrals, taking part in continuous assessment, and participating in individualized family service program (ifsp) and in individualized education program (iep).

domain which had the least parental participation was: taking part in the initial assessment.

results about barriers that hinder parental participation showed that the most important barriers are: low level of education among parents, lack of laws and regulations which force parents to participate in early intervention services, and lack of training courses offered to parents.

the study revealed that there were no statistically significant differences at (<0.05) in mean scores of parental participation according to the variable of years of experience among professionals.

the study also revealed that there were statistically significant differences attributed to the variable of parents’ level education related to the domain of(agreeing on referral) and these differences were for higher education.

there were no differences in other domains of parental participation.

also there were no differences related to economical level or degree of disability.

results showed differences between parents and professionals in (agreeing on referrals) and the difference was for parents.