Evaluation of the Families Satisfaction suported by a Local Team of Early Intervention
Author(s):
Esperança Jales Ribeiro (presenting / submitting) Sara Alexandre Felizardo (presenting) Sandra Gonçalves
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Format:
Poster

Session Information

14 SES 07 A PS, Interactive Poster Session

Interactive Poster Session

Time:
2015-09-09
17:15-18:45
Room:
103.Oktatóterem [C]
Chair:
Joana Lúcio

Contribution

This research proposes to assess the level of satisfaction of families from a county in northern Portugal, in view of the support provided by Local Intervention Teams, (LIT), within the scope of Early Intervention in Childhood (EIC), so as to ensure quality practices that best fit the needs of children and their families in various situation of development risk. The EIC is supported by multidisciplinary services provided to children under five years of age. "Its main objectives are: to promote the health and well-being of the child; foster the emergence of skills; minimize developmental delays, remedy existing or emerging disabilities, prevent functional deterioration; promote parental adjustment and the overall functioning of the family "(Meisels and Shonkoff, 2000, quoted by Soriano, 2005, p.16). The scientific production on the IPI argues that family-centered precocious intervention/early childhood intervention had its origin in the transactional model of Sameroff and Chandler (1975) and the perspectives of Brofenbrenner (1979) on the ecological and social systems (Pereira 2009, Serrano 2007). According to Tegethof (2007), a family-centered practice goes beyond the concept of "parental involvement" as it does not merely inform and educate the family to work with their children, but presupposes including them in decision making processes. The overall objective of this study relates to the need to assess the degree of satisfaction of families, who are supported under the EIC, in a county of the northern area of the country, by a Local Intervention Team (LIT).The aim is to find out to what extent the intervention is perceived as family-centered (among different dimensions to be evaluated: parental support, child support, social environment; relationship between parents and professionals; support model; parental rights; service location and connection, structure and administration of the service) and which areas of the service show major and minor weaknesses, so as to improve practices promoted by professionals.

Method

This is a study of a quantiative nature, descriptive and exploratory, following a non-experimental type of plan, since the causes and variables under analysis are not manipulated, the phenomenon and existing situations being studied and the facts being described as they present themselves (Sampieri, Collado & Lucio, 2006). In this investigation, were included all families supported by LIT in the county under study, so the sample consists of thirty-five mothers residing in an urban environment, with children, supported by team aged between one and four years . These children show disabilities or risk of severe overall developmental delay, including motor and language difficulties. As an instrument for data collection the Scale of Satisfaction of Families in Early Intervention in Childhood (SSFEIC), a Likert-type scale was used. The scale consists of sixty-six items in eight dimensions: i) parental support, ii) child support, iii) social environment, iv) relationship between parents and professionals, v) support model, vi) parental rights, vii) service location and connections viii) the structure and administration of the service.

Expected Outcomes

The results obtained show that, in general, families are satisfied with the services provided to them. It was found that the higher average values, revealing greater satisfaction, pertain to the following dimensions: parental support; support model, child support; structure and administration of the service. In contrast, the lowest averages were obtained in the following dimensions: parental rights, social environment, service location and connections, relationship between parents and professionals. It appears that mothers show greater satisfaction with the support that is given to the family / parents than that which is given to the child. The dimension support model, there is a high level of satisfaction, which may indicate that families rely on the skills of professionals. In the dimension structure and administration of the service, the results show that overall, parents are satisfied with the support provided, leading families to feel more confident to support their children. The sample shows less satisfaction in the dimension parental rights, which may demonstrate weaknesses in the divulgation of the rights of the parents of children with developmental problems, namely with concern to their decision-making powers. Also lower satisfaction is evidenced by social environment, which may show that the support given does not respond to the needs felt in issues related to the informal support network. Another dimension with less satisfaction is service location and connection, which shows that most mothers are unaware of the services and do not know how to resort to them. The mothers show even less satisfaction in the dimension relationship between parents and professionals, where the respect of technicians for the family, and role of the family in the intervention process are at stake. Given these results it seems important not only to ensure an active participation of families in the support, but also empower them for that participation.

References

Alves, M. (2009). Intervenção Precoce e Educação especial. Praticas de intervenção centrada na família. Viseu: Psicosoma. Cruz, A., Fontes, F. & Carvalho, M. (2003). Avaliação da satisfação das famílias apoiadas pelo PIIP: Resultados da aplicação da escala ESFIP. Lisboa: SNRIPD. Pereira, A. (2009). Práticas centradas na família em intervenção precoce: um estudo nacional sobre práticas profissionais, Tese de Doutoramento não publicada, Braga: Universidade do Minho. Sampieri, R., Collado, C. & Lucio, P. (2006). Metodologia de pesquisa. S. Paulo: Editora Mc Graw-Hill. Serrano, A. (2007). Redes Sociais de Apoio e sua relevância para a Intervenção Precoce, Porto: Porto Editora. Soriano, V. (2005). Intervenção precoce na infância. Análise das situações na Europa. Aspectos-chave e Recomendações. Lisboa: EADSNE. Tegethof, M. (2007). Estudos sobre a intervenção precoce em Portugal: ideias dos especialistas, dos profissionais e das famílias. Tese de Doutoramento apresentada à FPCE/UP.

Author Information

Esperança Jales Ribeiro (presenting / submitting)
Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Portugal
Sara Alexandre Felizardo (presenting)
Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Portugal
Sandra Gonçalves
Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Portugal

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER. 

Search the ECER Programme

  • Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
  • Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
  • Search for authors and in the respective field.
  • For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
  • If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.