e-mail: yuzuner@anadolu.edu.tr
THE PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the opinions of the family guides who participated in the Small Steps Project at Anadolu University, in Eskiþehir.
These research questions were generated:
What are the opinions of the family guides in terms of the benefits of the programme for the families, children and themselves?
What are the opinions of the family guides about the problems they had faced and what were their solutions?
What are the recommendations of the family guides to the administrators of the programme for better management of the programme?
METHOD
The Participants:
18 senior college students at Anadolu University, the Faculty of Education, Department of Special Education, Division of Mental Retardation participated to the study. They were all volunteers and paid a minimal salary.
The Design:
A qualitative study: A doctoral student in the special education program
conducted semi structured interviews with all participants.
Durations of
the interviews varied between 27 to 69 minutes.
Analysis:
The data were analyzed inductively following a couple of steps:
1-We transcribed the audiorecording interviews. Out of this
transcription we obtained a seven hundered eight three pages long data. Then,
we divided it into smaller segmennts.
2-We wrote descriptive index
information (title of the segment) and interviewer comments for each segment.
3-A code list was prepared to be used with the data segments. There were 17
different codes and each segment was coded with one or more of these codes.
4-The coded data segments were cut and put in the relevant file. Hence we
had 17 files of data.
5-Each file was reviewed by myself and by Sezgin
independently. Each of us formed themes, main themes and sub themes with the
data in the files. Then, we compared our themes and names of the participants
for each theme. If we had disagreements, we went back to data to come to an
agreement.
THE RESULTS
The result can be summarised with these main themes:
The benefits of the children, the families and the family guides.
The facilitative factors connected with the administration of the
programme.
The complicating factors connected with the administration of
the programme.
The recommendations for the family guides and the programme
administrators.
THE BENEFITS
A- The Benefits of the Children:
Improvement in gross motor skills (10)
Improvement in communication
skills (9)
Improvement in fine motor skills (9)
Improvement in
personal-social skills (7)
Improvement in receptive language skills (8)
General improvement: 'Remarkable', 'Considerable' (6)
Improvement in
attention span (3)
Decrease in behavioural problems (3)
Completion of
skills in all developmental areas (2)
These results show that the children have gained many skills in the programme. In fact two children have completed the skills in all developmental areas. The nature of the research design does not allow us to draw conclusions regarding cause and effect relations between the variables. However, the family guides offered that the progress of the children was connected with the Small Steps Project.
B- The Benefits of the Families
Learning how to assess their child (3)
Learning to use time with the
child more effectively (2)
Arranging opportunities for their child to play
with other children (2)
Learning to spend some time with their child (1)
Improving socially (e.g.: going to the cinema or attending to the congress)
(1)
Realising the importance of education (1)
Developing positive
behaviours (1)
Starting to buy educational toys for the child (1)
The
mother learned to criticise herself (1)
As it is seen, the family guides reported various benefits for the families. These benefits could be related with the unique characteristics of the family guides and /or the families.
C-The Benefits of the Program for the Family Guides
1 Professional Benefits:
Learning to transfer the theoretical knowledge to practice (15)
Getting knowledge and skill for family training (11)
Learning skill
instruction and assessment (10)
Gaining experiences (8)
Gaining
experiences for working with different types of families (8)
Overcoming the
fears about the field and gaining confidence (8)
Having opportunities for
more practice (7)
Realising their lack of knowledge during the programme
(7)
Learning the developmental stages (5)
Recognising the problems and
feelings of the families who have handicapped children (4)
Realising that
family training practices are different from school practices (3)
Getting
information about his/her future job (2)
Realising the insufficiencies of
the undergraduate program (2)
Learning to communicate with children (1)
Learning to implement individual instructional plan (1)
What the guides reported about their proffesional benefits from the programme overlaps with the objectives of undergraduate program for mental retardation at Anadolu University. It could be said that this project played an important role in strenthening the contributions college program and in providing the guides experiences in special education.
2-Personal Benefits
Having positive improvement in communicating with people (5)
Learning to work systematically (4)
Being happy (3)
Gaining
privilege in their close environment (2)
Having opportunities to meet and
talk with the specialists in the other fields (1)
Learning to be a
volunteer and unselfish person (2)
Learning to criticise herself/himself
(2)
Understanding the position of the family in the society (1)
Learning to be professional (1)
Learning the value of the books (1)
THE FACILITATIVE FACTORS
A- The Facilitative Factors Connected with the Families
Willingness (11)
Attending the sessions and doing homework (8)
Being able to read and comprehend the guiding books (4)
Involving the
other family members and neighbours in the Project (3)
Appreciating the
improvements of the child (1)
Accepting the child (1)
Having goals for
the child (1)
Having no problems in the family (1)
The mother's belief
of the child's success (1)
Existence of older brothers and sisters (1)
Providing necessary materials and knowledge (1)
In summary; The willing, hard-working and cooperative families facilitated the administration of the programme.
B- The Facilitative Factors Connected with the Family Guides
Having frequent meetings with the program advisors (9)
Interacting
with the friends (5)
Making home visits with preparation (4)
Being
motivated by earning some money (3)
Selecting the examples which are easily
understood or connected with the family's life (2)
Willingness (2)
Arranging extra visits during the week days (2)
Threatening the family
by taking them out of the programme (1)
Having self-confidence (1)
Having support from their own family (1)
Not accepting exaggerated
welcome with food and drink (1)
Giving few homework to the family (1)
Supporting or reinforcing the family in social situations (1)
C- The Facilitative Factors Connected with the Program
Clear and explicit books (9)
Materials distributed within the scope
of the project (4)
The meetings conducted by the project advisors (3)
The examples given during the preparation courses (2)
The sessions held
in the natural environment of the child (2)
Implementing the Small Steps
Project systematically (1)
Separated communication skill book from the
other books (1)
A two week pilot workshop (1)
The quality of project
administrators (1)
THE COMPLICATING FACTORS
A- The Complicating Factors Connected with the Families
Not studying and doing homework (7)
The unattended fathers (5)
Being unable to reject the food and drink offered by the family (4)
The
special family problems (4)
Offering excuses for not studying (4)
Unexpected informal interactions occurred between the family and the family
guide (3)
Having high expectations from the family guide (3)
Accepting
the family guide as the teacher of their child ( 2)
Having guests during
the sessions (2)
1- The problems created by the siblings(2)
2- The crowded family (2)
3- The unhappy family (2)
4- The illiterate family (1)
5- Being
unable to learn to keep records (1)
6- The aimless family (1)
7- Being
unable to get physiotherapy support because of the financial problems (1)
8- Being difficult to interact with (1)
9- Being unable to accept the
guide (1)
10- Having difficulties in reading and comprehending the books
(1)
11- Being able to implement but not adapt the examples in the books (1)
12- Not being used to such a program (1)
The main complicating factor was that the families did not work well. Interestingly, well studying families facilitated the administration of the program. These results are consistent with each other.
The food and drink offer is another factor for complication. But food offer can be considered as an aspect of Turkish culture. So it seems to be hard to overcome this problem.
B- The Complicating Factors Connected with the Children
Being unwilling to work (4)
Having visual impairment as well (2)
Becoming sick frequently (2)
Difficulties created by the child's
handicap (1)
Believing that the guide was in fact a doctor (1)
The
dirty child (1)
The spoiled child (1)
The children who attended the sessions unwillingly or rejected the activities created difficulties.The guides did not mention about the positive characteristics of the children.This makes us think that they have focused on the negative rather than the positive aspects of the children.
C- The Complicating Factors Connected with the Family Guides
Having insufficient knowledge in the area of communication skills (7)
Going to the sessions without preparation (4)
Having insufficient
knowledge in general (4)
Lacking self-confidence (3)
Not reading the
guiding books before the project started (3)
Being unable to establish
authority over the family (2)
Being fed up with the project (1)
Having
difficulties in teaching behaviour control to the family (1)
Not giving a
study plan to the family at the beginning of the project (1)
Being a male
family guide (1)
Being unable to implement personal-social skill
instruction (1)
We think that the guides can solve these difficulties by themselves. For example, coming to the preparation courses without reading the books is their own responsibility, not the programme advisors!
D- The Complicating Factors Connected with the Programme
The sessions held at home situations (3)
The insufficient materials
(2)
The information given insufficiently during the preparation courses (1)
Difficulties in keeping record and putting marks on the books (1)
No
meeting arrangement for the families and program advisors (1)
In the literature, the experts have reported several opinions about home situations. While some argued that home situations creates advantages, the others proposed that home situations restrics the interactions of the participants.
RECOMMENDATIONS
A-The Recommendations of the Present Family Guides to the Future Family Guides
Going to the home visits well prepared (12)
Being careful about
physical appearance (8)
Reading the Small Steps books and learn well (7)
Going to the home visits voluntarily and willingly (6)
Reading the
previous course notes (6)
Meeting with the program advisors frequently (5)
Establishing balanced relationship with the families (5)
Having work
discipline and making the families develop work discipline as well (4)
Teaching the concepts by simplifying and adapting them to the family's
understanding level (3)
Having positive attitudes towards the child and the
family (3)
Making the family notice the improvements of the child (2)
Not being biased to the child and the family (2)
Taking materials to
the families (2)
Keeping records and anecdotes regularly (2)
Making the
family keep records and anecdotes (2)
Threatening the lazy families (2)
Realising and admiring the importance of attending the Small Steps Project
and not missing this opportunity (2)
Evaluating themselves (2)
Having
good relationship with the families (2)
Spending some time with the child
at the beginning of each home visit (1)
Not showing the family that they
are insufficient in some respects and overcoming the insufficiencies as soon as
possible (1)
Not forgetting that they are not the child's teacher (1)
Making use of the experiences of the previous family guides (1)
Telling
the family the importance of the Project (1)
Being flexible in home visits
(1)
Not being hopeless (1)
Improving relationship with people (1)
Talking with everybody and sharing their experiences (1)
Creating
positive impression on the family at the first meeting (1)
Being objective
all the time during the home visits (1)
Not forgetting that they go to the
family as an educator (1)
Finding out the most suitable record keeping
method (1)
Determining objectives for themselves (1)
Learning
individualised instruction (1)
Preparing token reinforcers to use with some
children (1)
Learning song and game instruction from the resources other
than the Small Steps books (1)
All the recommendations listed above had been covered before their home visits during the preparation courses.
B- The Recommendations of the Family Guides to the Administrators of the Small Steps Project
1-Recommendations for Training Family Guides
Practical examples could be given during the preparation process (12)
The training time could be extended (9)
More detailed information could
be given during the preparation process (5)
More detailed information could
be given about communication skills (5)
Preparation process could continue
in the same style (5)
Information about work discipline could be provided
(3)
Homework could be given to the family guides during the preparation
process (2)
The information about all children attending to the program
could be given to the all family guides participated in the programme (2)
The experiences of the previous family guides could be used during the
preparation courses (2)
The Small Steps Programme could be included in a
college course (2)
Song instruction could be taught or sources about this
issue could be recommended (1)
More detailed information about
developmental areas could be given during preparation courses (1)
The
family guides could be trained systematically during their third year in
college (1)
The knowledge about behaviour change could be given during the
preparation courses (1)
By using force the project advisor could make the
guides read the books (1)
In the following year, family guide training procedures have been taught in the Early Education and Family Guidance course works.
2- The Recommendations for the follow up procedure of the Family Guides and the Families
The family guides could be observed more frequently by the
administrators of the programme (E.g.: every month) (13)
Meetings could be
arranged with the families every month (10)
All family guides could be
given chances to talk during the follow up meetings (4)
Because the family
guides are not taken seriously by families, the administrators of the programme
could support them (4)
Through the use of tests etc., the family guides
could be evaluated and monitored (3)
Small group workshops could be
conducted during the follow up meetings (2)
The administrators of the
programme could get information about the home visits from the families (2)
The number of one-on-one meetings with the programme advisors could be
increased (1)
The administrators of the programme could observe the family
guides without informing them in advance (1)
The family guides could be
observed less frequently for letting them work independently (1)
Considering the conditions of Anadolu University, the recommentation of the family guides being observed more frequently by the administrators of the programme is difficult to administer. Moreover, when being followed up more frequently, the family guides might have difficulties to establish rapport with the family and the family could suspect about the sufficiency of the guide.
Based on the recommendation about monthly meetings with the families, the following year the families were invited to the meetings. Ironically, only one family attended.
C-The Other Recommendations
The information about the project could be given prior to the project
(2)
Chances could be given to the volunteers for being family guides (2)
The family guides who might have problems with the families should not be
involved in the project (1)
The role of being a family guide could be given
after the graduation (1)
The administrators of the programme must be
experienced before the application of the program (1)
Supportive experts
such as physiotherapists and psychological counsellors should be provided (1)
The administrators of the programme should be very selective in choosing
the guides (1)
The administrators should make the families more conscious
about their children (1)
The administrators of the programme should deal
with the guides equally (1)
Every family who apply to the program should
not be accepted to the programme (1)
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