A STUDY OF A PARENT TRAINING PROGRAM AND THE PERCEPTIONS OF LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS TOWARDS EACH OTHER

In recent years, substantial attention has been paid to the influence of parents on various aspects of their children's development. Although this influence is widely accepted, there has been increasing recognition that children also have an effect on their parents' behaviors and attitudes. Research in either of these areas, as they relate to families of learning disabled (LD) children, has been relatively sparse. The socio-emotional aspects of a learning disability can impact on the entire family, perpetuating a cycle of misunderstanding and failure; this possibility necessitates the development of systematic research on this population. This study investigated the effects of an innovative parent training program on the behavioral perceptions of LD children and their parents. The parent training was aimed at strengthening the parents' teaching and parenting behavior, thereby influencing their children's behavior and achievement. Seventeen parents and their LD children from the District of Columbia Public Schools voluntarily participated in the parent training program. This study was designed as a pre-experimental pre-test post-test pilot study. It attempted to identify questions which could be examined in future research using a more structured experimental design. Interrelated scales for child-behavior and parent-behavior were developed for this study and a Q-sort technique was used to measure the perceptions of LD children and their parents. Non-parametric statistical techniques were used to analyze the results of the four research hypotheses. It was hypothesized that the LD children's perceptions of parent behavior, as well as the parents' perceptions of child behavior, would be more positive after parent involvement in the training program. Less discrepancy between the perceptions of the parents and children was also expected after intervention. The results indicated that the parent training program had a positive impact on the parent-child relationship. Both parents and children experienced significantly more positive feelings toward each other after six months of involvement. The prediction of greater congruence between the perceptions of parents and children was not supported by the findings of this study. In fact, the parents and their LD children were found to have very similar perceptions of their own and each other's behavior from the beginning. Recommendations for further research in the area were also outlined.