The topic in the paper is related to the support and assistance to parents of children with special needs (hereinafter parents of children with SN), and it is quite important to me. Everyone - the environment, experts - meet children with special needs as well as their parents, whose feelings, opinions, thoughts, and experiences vary a lot, and this is what I focus on in more detail in my master's thesis. I emphasize the opinions expressed by parents regarding support and assistance for children with SN, who helps them and how (environment, experts) and in what way they cooperate with professionals and to what degree they assess their competence. Based on the opinions, experiences and assessments given by parents of children with SN, people who are in similar situations can get helpful guidance and ideas on how to behave in certain situations and tackle the difficulties. The collected data from the interviews is a contribution for the neighbourhood, professionals who will gain an insight into what parents want, what bothers them or what they face and struggle with.
In the theoretical introduction, I present the literature on this topic. I focus on the family, within which I pay special attention on the parents of children with SN, partners in relation to each other, siblings and family’s social networks. I present a routine/changes in the family. Furthermore, I introduce the concepts of help and support from experts, highlight the cooperation between school and parents and list the rights of parents of children with SN. Finally, I present the aspect of social work.
In the empirical part, I conducted a research based on partially standardized interviews and qualitative data processing. 8 parents of children with SN, citizens of the Republic of Slovenia in 2021, participated in the research.
The results show that most parents found out that they had a child with SN shortly after birth. They experienced both positive and negative feelings, but predominantly, however, they fought with negative thoughts. Immediately after the diagnosis, they started looking for information, most often by reading scientific writings online and different forums, especially in FB groups. There are certain changes in the family of a child with SN. Most of the time, all members face the new reality by changing it into an everyday routine. The interviewees generally consider the partnership to be good, they support each other and cooperate in child care. They see the relationship between siblings as good, even though they notice some changes in their behaviour. Parents usually share information about having a child with SN with their parents and friends, who also help them and offer support by conversation or babysitting. The reactions of the neighbourhood are both positive and negative. Parents seek help from experts, and the frequency of it varies from individual to individual. Their cooperation is successful, but nevertheless different feelings appear - from satisfaction to disappointment, as there are differently trained and suitable specialists for such sensitive work. Interviewees claim they want more empathy, flexibility and, above all, more attention from professionals. Parents of children with SN most often benefit from childcare allowance and the right to at least three additional days of annual leave. Parents of children with SN mostly reconcile themselves to a given situation and accept any offered help. The latter is also a priority, namely that they dare to seek help and support from their loved ones or professionals, and that they continue to maintain strength and positive energy, as I believe that they pass this on to the child.
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