Facilitating Family Invovement in Special Education

Lee, Sohyun

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2000;5(1): 1-18.

Sohyun Lee^`

이소현(Sohyun Lee)

ABSTRACT

Parent - teacher or family - school partner ship play s an important role in education. For children with disabilities, this partner ship can play a more critical role in their education. T hrough numerou s studies it has been concluded that family involvement in special education is very important . T o make family involvement to be more effective for their children s educational outcomes, appropriate support and intervention for families including parent s should be provided. In this paper , definition and rationale for the family involvement in special education are reviewed and several approaches including family a s ses sment , r ecognizing family needs , knowin g char act eristics of family inv olv ement program, formulating efficient family - teacher collaboration, and family empowerment , are suggested. Each approach is discussed in terms of sy stematic and practical methodolog - ical aspect s . In conclusion, it has been emphasized that all approaches suggested here should be implemented in a simultaneous and wholistic manner to maximize the effect of family involvement for their children s beneficial educational outcomes .