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

ilies worked together”, <strong>and</strong> commented that
“the end result was fabulous,” she also believed
that it “would be very difficult for teachers
to complete [FAPs] with numerous children.”
All of the FAPs <strong>in</strong> this project were
created on an <strong>in</strong>dividual basis with professionals
work<strong>in</strong>g directly with families. Future implementation
should explore creat<strong>in</strong>g FAPs <strong>in</strong>
a group sett<strong>in</strong>g, with facilitators work<strong>in</strong>g with
several parents at the same time <strong>in</strong> a systematic
manner. Perhaps parents could be recruited
to attend 3 to 4 workshop sessions <strong>in</strong> a
computer lab over the course of a semester,
with specific <strong>in</strong>structions to come to each session
with certa<strong>in</strong> materials (e.g., photos, video
footage) already gathered. FAP components
could be created dur<strong>in</strong>g these sessions <strong>in</strong> a
sequential manner, with the goal of creat<strong>in</strong>g
numerous FAPs with families without overwhelm<strong>in</strong>g
facilitators <strong>in</strong> terms of time <strong>and</strong>
effort.
The f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs from this study clearly reveal
that parents <strong>and</strong> educators perceived FAPs to
be very useful for the purpose of communicat<strong>in</strong>g
<strong>in</strong>formation about a child. As Berry <strong>and</strong>
Hardman (1998) po<strong>in</strong>t out, “the parents’ role
is to provide <strong>in</strong>formation about their son or
daughter, <strong>and</strong> the first role of the professional
is to solicit this <strong>in</strong>formation <strong>and</strong> to listen carefully
<strong>and</strong> empathetically when it is presented”
(p. 125). Based on f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs from this study, it
430 / <strong>Education</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Developmental</strong> <strong>Disabilities</strong>-September 2009
is evident that FAPs can assist with this important
first step of <strong>in</strong>formation exchange.
References
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