attitudes of parents towards their mentally retarded children: a rural ...

he future in terms of employment
s a move towards nonnalization, a number of programs have been developed in South Africa and
broad to teach vocational skills to individuals with mental retardation. Seyfarth, Hill, Orelove,
cMillan and Wehman (1987) state that some of these programs have helped workers with mental
etardation to gain employment in which they work beside and perfonn the same tasks as non-
andicapped workers. Seyfarth et. aI., (1987) further state that while these vocational training and
lacement have important benefits to the people involved, such as enhanced feelings of efficacy and
elf-worth, there are also dangers and disadvantages as well, such as the possibility of physical injury,
xploitation, abuse and loss ofguaranteed financial aid payments. Success in a given job, according to
.
eyfarth et. aI., (1987) is influenced by many factors other than mental ability and there are threshold
equirements in most occupations that close out some persons from entering those fields. For mentally
etarded people, even the logistics of daily life, such as telling time or travelling on a public
ransportation system, are challenges that limit their immediate prospects to gain employment
Seyfarth et. aI., 1987).
11 parents hold idealized expectations of their child's potential and prospects in the world of work
Venn, Dubose & Merbler 1977; in Seyfarth et. al., 1987), which may be either realistic or umealistic
ohnson & Capobianco 1957; in Seyfarth et. aI., 1987). Seyfarth et. aI., (1987) conducted a study in
irginia on the factors that influence parent's vocational aspirations for their children with mental
tardation. The sample consisted ofmothers or fathers ofpersons with mental retardation who were
7 years of age or older. Some of the factors that they fonnd to be significant were: parents attitudes
Wards work as a nonnal part of life; the child's age and the child's developmental level. Parents
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