TPC-Digests-V1-Issues-123

A b s t r a c t The types and nature of support services used by the parents of children with special needs and the effectiveness of those support services in reducing the parents’ stress levels and/or increasing their coping skills were investigated. It was found that parents had significant need for low cost services, particularly those that resulted in mutual support. January 30th, 2012 Shannon Hodges A P reliminary E xploration of S upport S ystems for P arents of C hildren with S pecial N eeds This study investigated the types of services used by the parents of children with special needs and their effectiveness in reducing the parents’ stress levels as well as increasing their coping skills. Common issues and concerns with raising children with special needs were identified as internal and external factors which could contribute to parents’ high stress levels. Thus, in order for the whole family to have a better quality of life, providing services that would reduce the high stress level seems crucial. This study involved a mixed research design. For the quantitative part of the study, a survey was used to collect data regarding parents’ stress levels and experience of receiving services. When choosing a service, schedule, cost and format of the service all appeared to be important as indicated by a high response rate for each factor. The two most used types of services were TPC Digest Go To Article