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Special Education

Notes (iii) Causes are not known or not detectable in around ...................... of cases that are mentally
challenged.
(iv) ........................... orientation of the professionals is the key for intervention to deal with these
disability issues in the process of counseling.
(v) When the ..................... is physically obvious and noticeable, it becomes difficult for parents
to accept that their child has some disability.

31.2 Parental Involvement
Firstly, it is highly important to understand the significance of parental involvement in rehabilitation
process. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997) defined parent involvement that includes two types
of activities for the parents: one is home-based activities related to children's learning at school - for
example, reviewing the child's work and monitoring child progress, helping with homework,
discussing school events or course issues with the child, providing enrichment activities pertinent to
school success, and talking by phone with the teacher. Second, School-based involvement, focused
on such activities as driving on a field trip, staffing a concession booth at school games, coming to
school for scheduled conferences or informal conversations, volunteering at school, serving on a
parent-teacher advisory board.
The most comprehensive model of parent involvement is perhaps the one proposed by Epstein (2001).
She describes six major levels of involvement.
1. Parenting includes the basic parenting and child rearing approaches that prepare children for
school.
2. Communicating with families, providing information about the school programs and children's
progress is the second level of involvement, which are the basic responsibilities on the part of
the schools.
3. Volunteering by parents for assisting the teachers in classrooms. It may also include parental
support for their children in extracurricular activities such as sports, and other events.
4. Learning at home includes requests and guidance from teachers for parents to assist their own
children at home in activities to coordinate with the children's class work.
5. Decision-making i.e. including parents in school governance.
6. Community partnership final level of involvement is collaborating with the community to
strengthen school programs.
According to Brito and Waller, parent involvement is a concept that can include many different
activities. It can range from an impersonal visit to school once a year to frequent parent teacher
consultations to active school governorship. Thus, individual parents can be placed on a continuum
ranging from very low (or nonexistent) to very active involvement. With this understanding, parental
involvement can be seen as an extending and investing genuinely, positively and non-judgmentally
beyond themselves. In case of parents of a child with disability, the issue of involvement can become
more complex.

Parental involvement is the gateway to benefit person with disability from the possible
professional help. The term 'parental involvement' means different things to different
people.

31.2.1 Facilitating Parental Involvement
Relationship of rehabilitation professional and parents became the foundation to motivate and increase
effective parental involvement in the process of rehabilitation. It is important to develop trustworthy
and healthy relationship among parents and rehabilitation professionals. While dealing with the
parents emphasis on the following aspects is facilitative:

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