PURPOSE
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the Small Steps Early Intervention Program that was implemented by Anadolu University through the opinions of parents who attended the program. These research questions were generated:
METHOD
The participants of the study were 23 family members who attended the program in 1997-98. The number of families receiving services that year was 35. However, 23 families accepted to take part in the study and each family was represented in the study with either the mother or the father except one family, which was represented by the cousin of the child. 78% of the participants were female and 22% of the participants were male.
The research data were collected by focus group interviews, a kind of qualitative data collection procedure. The literature suggests to form at least three focus groups with 5 to 10 participants in each group. In this study, three focus groups were formed with 9 participants in the first group, 6 participants in the second group and 8 participants in the third group.
Each focus group met on a separate day. I was the moderator and Sezgin was the assistant moderator of the focus group interviews. We asked 11 questions and each participant answered all questions. All of the questions were related to the main research questions that I mentioned before. Focus group interviews lasted for an hour to an hour and a half. The interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. We had a total of 180 pages of data.
The data were analyzed by inductive analyses following a couple of steps:
RESULTS
The themes were put together to form the results of the study. The findings were grouped in four broad categories:
A. Program Aspects
B. Contributions of the Program
C. Problems
Associated with the Program
D. Suggestions for Future Implementations of
the Program
A. The findings related to the program aspects had four sections:
B. The contributions of the program were examined in two sections:
C. The problems associated with the program were divided into four sections:
D. The suggestions for future implementations of the program were as follows:
Now let us have a look at the findings more closely.
A. Program Aspects
1. Expectations From the Program
a. Expectations for Children:
b. Other Expectations:
The fact that families were expecting very little from the program for themselves is very interesting. This might, in part, be caused offering little information to family members as to in what respects they can benefit from the program themselves.
2. How the Program was Implemented at Home
This big difference between the mothers and the fathers might be due to the Turkish family structure. That is, mothers are the primary caregivers of the children. Moreover, there are some studies conducted in other countries (e.g., Bailey and Simeonsson, 1988, USA) which resulted with similar differences between mothers and fathers. It might be necessary to make special arrangements in order to include fathers in child raring practices more systematically.
3. The Continuation of the Program
4. The Best Aspects of the Program
The finding revealing that the guide support and books were evaluated by the parents positively is encouraging.
B. Contributions of the Program
1. Contributions of the Program for the Children
Most family members mentioned the personal-social skill development very often. On the other hand, only seven participants stated that they had expectations about development of personal-social skills. It might be argued that there has been an unexpected development in personal-social skills.
The same can be argued for gross and fine motor development as well.
Regarding the four children who had a very little progress, all of these children are severely/profoundly disabled. All of us know that this group of children progress very slowly. Therefore, I don't think that this is a shortcoming of the program.
2. Contributions of the Program for the Families
a. General Gains of the Family:
Although parents reported very little expectations from the program, they reported very important gains. All of the gains accept psychological support is among the primary goals of the program.
b. Contributions of the Program for the Siblings and Significant Others:
C. Problems Associated with the Program
1. Problems Arising From the Families
2. Problems Arising from the Children
3. Problems Arising From the Program Administrators
4. Problems Arising From the Books
Almost all of these problems were solved by experience and guide support.
D. Suggestions for Future Implementations of the Program
1. Suggestions to the Families
All of these suggestions are consistent with the suggestions made at the introductory parent meetings.
2. Suggestions to the Program Administrators
All of these suggestions are against the main goal of the Small Steps Program, which is 'to make parents implement the program independently'. If the program administrators will get involved with assessment and instruction more, parents will be less involved and less responsible. Furthermore, the main goal of the program was expected to have two implications: (a) to make the parents more knowledgeable and skillful, (b) to serve more parents and children. Therefore, we cannot sacrifice from this main goal. We want to and we have to serve more people.
CONCLUSION
The results of the two studies showed that Small Steps Early Intervention Program for Developmentally Delayed Children implemented by Anadolu University in Eskisehir was beneficial for children, families and parent guides. No major problem emerged regarding the program books. The findings about the family guide support revealed that, this support was beneficial for helping the parents implement the program as well as providing experience to the family guides. These findings are encouraging to continue this program.
On the other hand, some of the opinions stated by the parents as well as the family guides showed that most families were unable to gain independence in assessing and instructing their children; and most guides were unable to take full responsibility for the program. We thought that some of these problems might have been solved, in part, by selecting and monitoring family guides with greater care. Hence, in the following year, Small Steps program was included in a course about early special education. After the students completed this course and became seniors, the most successful students and students with the best references from their professors were chosen as family guides. However, these new standards were not met by many senior students. For example, in the next year only nine students were hired as family guides. Hence, the number of families receiving services decreased by half. That is, the efforts to increase the quality of the services decreased the quantity of the clients.
All these findings made us think of alternative support systems provided to the families in order for them to implement the Small Steps program independently. For instance, parents might be trained intensively at the beginning of the program and supported by family guides for a limited and gradually decreasing time period. These kinds of alternatives should be implemented in a research framework and their effectiveness and efficiency should be checked scientifically before using hem wide-spread. Single-subject research methodology is very suitable for building cause and effect relationships between variables. When there is sufficient number of participants to form two or more experimental groups, group experimental studies can be designed, too.
 |
 |