Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities - Division on ...

TABLE 1
Characteristics of children <strong>and</strong> families
Variable n
Gender of children
Male 8
Female 3
Age of children at time FAP was completed
35 months or less 3
36 to 47 months 1
48 to 59 months 2
60 to 70 months 5
Disability Characteristics of children (parent
report)
<strong>Developmental</strong> delay 4
Autism Spectrum Disorder 7
Down syndrome 3
Low vision/Bl<strong>in</strong>dness 1
Physical disability: arm/h<strong>and</strong> limitations 1
Physical disability: mobility limitations 1
Epilepsy 3
Ethnicity of family
Euro-American 7
African-American 1
Other 1
<strong>and</strong> negatively worded items on a questionnaire
to control for response sets <strong>in</strong> respondents.
If every item on a questionnaire is
worded either positively or negatively, there is
a greater chance that respondents will not
thoughtfully read <strong>and</strong> answer each item
(Yamaguchi, 1997).
Parent <strong>in</strong>terviews lasted between 30–40
m<strong>in</strong>utes <strong>and</strong> were conducted at a convenient
time for the parents. The parents were asked
about their perceptions related to the importance/acceptability
of FAP goals, procedures,
<strong>and</strong> outcomes. All <strong>in</strong>terviews were recorded
<strong>and</strong> transcribed. Eight of the 10 families that
participated had parents who completed both
the questionnaire <strong>and</strong> an <strong>in</strong>terview. There was
one family where the parent only completed
the questionnaire <strong>and</strong> another family where
only the <strong>in</strong>terview was completed.
FAP facilitators. FAP facilitators were four
professionals (teachers <strong>and</strong> case managers)
<strong>and</strong> four university students (one graduate
student <strong>and</strong> 3 undergraduate students), who
worked with the parents to develop FAPs. The
professionals worked <strong>in</strong> either early childhood
special education (3-5) or early <strong>in</strong>tervention
(0-2) programs <strong>and</strong> were certified special education
teachers or licensed social workers.
Their professional work experience ranged
from 3 years to 12 years. The undergraduate
university students were prepar<strong>in</strong>g to be special
education teachers while the graduate student
had already completed a special education
teacher preparation program <strong>and</strong> was
pursu<strong>in</strong>g a master’s degree <strong>in</strong> special education.
All of the facilitators were female <strong>and</strong>
received tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g from a university professor
(the second author) on how to support parents
to create FAPs. The facilitators provided
“h<strong>and</strong>s-on” assistance to help the parents create
the three components of the FAP (i.e.,
scrapbook, movie, <strong>and</strong> web page). Although
some parents were more <strong>in</strong>volved than others
<strong>in</strong> the technical aspects of creat<strong>in</strong>g the materials,
<strong>in</strong> all the cases the facilitators provided
significant technical assistance to the parents.
FAP facilitators participated <strong>in</strong> this study by
complet<strong>in</strong>g an onl<strong>in</strong>e anonymous questionnaire.
Similar to the parents, the FAP facilitators
were asked about their perceptions related
to FAPs (i.e., goals, procedures, <strong>and</strong>
outcomes). Questionnaire items required Likert
scale responses to five statements as well as
short answer responses to 11 open-ended
questions.
Pre-service <strong>and</strong> experienced teachers. Because
it was not feasible to recruit educators who
had actually received FAPs from parents, 43
pre-service teachers (38 females <strong>and</strong> 5 males)
<strong>and</strong> 23 experienced teachers were recruited to
participate <strong>in</strong> the study. The pre-service teachers
were students attend<strong>in</strong>g a large university
<strong>in</strong> the midwestern region of the United States.
Twenty-eight of them were enrolled <strong>in</strong> a special
education teacher preparation program
<strong>and</strong> 15 were enrolled <strong>in</strong> an early childhood
teacher preparation program. These pre-service
teachers were predom<strong>in</strong>ately “traditional”
college age students, with only 4% older than
25 years of age. Eighty five percent of the
pre-service teachers identified themselves as
European-American, 8% as African-American,
<strong>and</strong> the rest as Other.
The pre-service teachers were enrolled <strong>in</strong>
two undergraduate education courses focus<strong>in</strong>g
on teach<strong>in</strong>g methods for children with
disabilities. The second author, who was not
the course <strong>in</strong>structor, provided a 5-m<strong>in</strong>ute
overview of FAPs <strong>and</strong> the purpose of the study,
Family Assessment Portfolios / 423