Parental Involvement in the Education of Children with Special Needs

Children with special educational needs deserve more parental support in their learning than ordinary children do. Most parents are reluctant to involve themselves fully in the profession they are not experts in. Educators would want to guard their profession jealously and might view parental involvement as an intrusion into their traditionally long and solid profession. This paper discusses some of the fears educators have in lowering their profession if non professionals tampered with the profession they have no training of. It also discusses those problems faced by parents in trying to involve themselves in the education of their children. The paper further suggests ways of making professionals in education equal partners with parents of children whom they teach. Undoubtedly, the benefits derived by children with special educational needs from equal partnership between parents and specialist educators are too great to contemplate. Parents are the first un-certified teachers of their children. They have a lot to offer to teachers whose professional knowledge could benefit from the information supplied by parents.

A ZBTE article on parental participation in the educational process of their children with special needs.