Parents of disabled children characterized by intellectual delay and their coping strategies

Background

The purpose of this research study is to help us to distinguish how much, certain factors can influence ‘coping strategies’ that parents of disabled children use.

Materials and methods

For carrying on this research, Toulouse's “scale for coping”, was used, that relate three areas: Behavioral, Cognitive and Emotional. The chosen method was interviewing disabled children's parents.

Results

Data show that more important problems with the management of sentiments face: mothers, older parents, with less education, girl's parents, parents with older related children with intellectual delay, parents of children with lower indicator of intelligence and smaller self-service rate, and those that when was given birth the child were older than 30's. On the contrary, parameters which are not affect the coping strategies, are: residence, origin place, time moment that parents informed for child's difficulties, subgroup of genetic disease that child were diagnosed with, the existence of other children in the family as well as the follow-up of department of school from the child.

Conclusions

The knowledge of sentimental changes from which the parents go through is a valuable tool which if therapists utilize properly, they can achieve the maximum results, for the level best child's therapeutic confrontation, as the disabled child is a unit of total which mainly constitutes his family. That makes imperative the need for collaboration of parents and therapists because without support and help from the parents, even most distinguished pedagogic and therapeutic programs are frequent minimal useful to special child. (References: Tap et al., 1991; 1993; 1995.)