TPC-Journal-V1-Issue1

The Professional Counselor \ Volume 1, Issue 1 69 Michael’s doctors say, ‘We don’t know if he can ever walk. But we don’t know if he won’t. It’s gonna be up to you, Mom. It’s gonna be, if he’s got the potential to do it. You’re the one that’s gonna push him…’It’s a lot of pressure and I don’t think that these doctors meant to give me that unneeded pressure… But I work very hard to push Michael, you know, everyday. But it scares me. It scares me that, ‘Am I pushing him enough? Am I pushing him too hard?’ Obviously Amy (and other parents of children with special needs like her) suffers from high levels of stress from both internal and external factors. To Amy, taking care of Michael was like “not knowing how to swim and you get thrown into a pool with another person who doesn’t know how to swim.” When Michael was born, Amy had to teach herself how to raise a child with special needs because “these children don’t come with an instruction manual…or a book of resources.” She believed that knowledge about Michael’s disability would be particularly important in order for her to take care of him properly and effectively. She also was aware that the process of accepting her son’s disability and learning how to take care of a child with special needs could be “a nightmare for some people,” because “even someone with formal medical training struggles with these children.” Amy related that she thought a support group to provide opportunities for the parents of children with special needs to discuss and share experiences and feelings would be beneficial. She also believed that inviting a professional such as a social worker to the group who could help the parents fill out paperwork for requesting funds and other assistance would be beneficial because many parents of children with special needs struggle with understanding and completing formal documents properly. At the end of the interview, Amy indicated that she felt like she was contributing at least in a small way to improving the lives of parents of children with special needs by participating in the research and that the interview was helpful in reducing her stress. Discussion This preliminary research was conducted to gather data, collect descriptive personal information, and, from the data, suggest future practices for gaining understanding of the unique needs of parents of children with special needs. Suggested in the results of this exploratory study, is that counseling services for parents of children with special needs are both warranted and needed. The format of such services likely should be group counseling because of lower cost and potential for mutual support among group members. Such group counseling sessions should be in part psychoeducational and in part intended to foster support to meet the goals of knowledge and skill acquisition for parenting children with special needs and sharing personal experiences with others. Individual and/or family counseling might be used as a follow-up service, especially for parents or families of children with special needs who appear to need intensive care. Finally, parents of children with special needs should be able to choose how they would like to interact, such as by phone, home visit, or face-to-face because they often struggle with finding child care for when they are away from home. Having support group meetings at each other’s homes also can be an option so that parents can take turns watching children during meetings. Limitations of this study included a small number of male participants. Whether more responses from fathers would have changed the results is only a matter of speculation. Thus, future research that includes significantly more input from fathers of children with special needs is needed. Also, to be noted is that some participants reported confusion about terms such as psychoeducation, which may have influenced their responses. Therefore, future research should identify specific services rather than the categories of services. Any online survey is limited to those who have access to the Internet and are comfortable using computers. Future studies can overcome this limitation to a great extent by incorporating multiple methods involving several types of data collection. Finally, the case interview was perhaps the most valuable part of the study in terms of revealing the reality and challenges faced by parents of children with special needs. Thus, qualitative, phenomenological research also would be beneficial, especially for understanding the unique and complex concerns of parents of children with special needs.