The Impact of SEN Children on Families: A Qualitative Research Report

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TOPIC
“THE IMPACT OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS (SEN) ON
FAMILIES”
Contents
TOPIC.............................................................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1
AIMS............................................................................................................................. 1
OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................1
RATIONALES............................................................................................................... 2
RESEARCH QUESTION.............................................................................................. 2
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................3
METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................................5
Study design................................................................................................................. 5
Search strategy.............................................................................................................5
KEYWORDS................................................................................................................. 6
Data collection...............................................................................................................6
Reliability and validity....................................................................................................6
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS.........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................. 8
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................9
1

INTRODUCTION
Special education also known as special need education or aided education is the
concept of educating the children who are having some learning or mental disabilities.
Special Needs includes learning disabilities, dyslexia, emotional and behavioural
disorders, physical disabilities, autism etc. (Vohra et al., 2014). Children with these
disabilities are not easy to be educated as they face various challenges in coping with
the style of curriculum and a normal education system that is built for a healthy child.
The families of these children face a variety of challenges while trying to educate them.
Not only in the field of education but the overall life of the families of special need
children is encircled by tremendous care and tedious and trying tasks of caring for the
children. It is seen that the intellect level of any person depends on nature as well as
nurture (Gascoigne., 2014). The common debate that explains the concept of traits in a
human being derived from genetic or environment. Similarly, the learning ability for an
individual depends on their biological framework as well as is acquired from their
environment. It is mostly seen that the process of caring for special need children is
very difficult and challenging that makes the parents and families undergo sheer
pressure and deteriorate their physical as well as mental health and wellbeing.
AIMS
“The aim of this research is to critically evaluate the impact of children with special
educational needs on their families in the UK".
OBJECTIVES
 To evaluate the impact of caring for special needs children
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 To evaluate the impact on the physical and mental health of family members of
special need children
 To analyse the long term effects on the overall quality of life of a family of special
need children
RATIONALES
The children with special education needs may require extra and additional help that is
given to other children of the same age. The question here is for the families to live with
the special child and the one who requires extra efforts and attention than normal
children to fulfil their needs is the challenging task (Hodkinson., 2015). The task of
caring for and promoting special requirements to the children with special education
needs brings about various difficulties in the path of family members that deteriorates
their quality of life and has a severe impact on their physical as well as mental
wellbeing. The current literature focuses on the challenges that the families and carer
face during caring for special need children but there are gaps in the data regarding the
impact of these challenges on the overall wellbeing of the families of special need
children. This research will benefit the population of the UK that is direct and indirect
care for individuals with special education needs. It will also help the government and
policy maker by highlighting the effects of special need children on the families (Vohra
et al., 2014).
RESEARCH QUESTION
 How does special education need children to impact the lives of their families in
the UK?
 What is the physical and emotional impact of caring from a special education
need children on their family members?
 What strategies are currently working in the UK to support the families of special
education need children?
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Childhood is the stage of every human being's life where support from family and
affection is required to grow and develop the psychology in a positive manner. The
formative age of the individual here every action is supported by the guidance of family
member is essential and helpful in coping with the odds of later life. The question arises
is that the family is affected by this process eventually or not. Herrema et al (2017),
examined how the mental wellbeing of the carer of autistic children is severely affected.
The study used 109 families caring for autistic children that required special education
needs. The results of this survey indicated that the family members of the autistic
children who were caring for them reported high levels of stress and worry also
associated with depression and anxiety. This identified that the support for the family
members of such special need children is not adequately addressed and this leads to
psychosocial difficulties and issues in their life.
According to the GAS theory by Selye, stress is a variable that is independent and
works in three dimensions. General Adaptation Syndrome is the result of stressors in
the individual’s life. While applying this concept to the carers of special education need
children it is easily identified that these family members have severe stressors in their
life that challenge them at every point mentally and deteriorated their overall quality of
life. The theory described how stress can be the main factor for the development of
various physical as well as mental health conditions. The theory explained the process
of stress in three stages alarming stage, resistance and exhaustion stage. The case
with most of the families of the special education need children seen is that they have
followed this triad of events and ultimately reached the exhaustion stage where the
chronic stress results in depression, anxiety, fatigue and irritability. The physical
implication of this stage also indicates the development of immune weakening effects
that can help in the development of physical illness even.
Hartley & Schultz (2015), in their study, examined how the parents of children with
autism have support needs to cope with their caring roles. The study utilized the
observation method to compare the support needs of mothers versus fathers of the
autistic children regarding support while coping with the caring process of their children.
&3 couples with autistic children were compared and it was identified that mothers had
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a higher number of support needs than father as they were the primary carer to these
children. It was also identified that the result of the care process is severe and impacts
the psychological and mental status of the parents as well. It was also seen that the
special education child affected the parents and families in a variety of manner by the
intellectual disability they possess, special requirements of their care, the financial
burden on the family due to expensive care, and parent’s education level. The research
used a comparatively small sample size that leads to specific and focused results rather
than generalized ones. The study is suitable for this review as it helps in finding some
core concept that supports the claim that there are negative effects on the life of a
family of special needs children.
The study by Bekenkamp et al (2014), examined the physical effects of the caring
process of special education need child on the family. The physical health here is
evaluated in relation to meaning in life. The literature till date followed on evaluating the
perception of the family of special need children for the impact of a child on their
psychological health but this study fills the gap by focusing on the physical health
aspects of the family members of such children. The online survey was used as part of
a qualitative study that aimed at evaluating the physical health issues and prevalence of
these issues in parents with special need children. The results indicated that the
meaning in life was a crucial parameter for the achievement of self-actualization and
transcendence. It was found that the parents of special need children suffer more
physical health issues than others. The study also found that the perceived poor mental
and physical health of the family due to the task of raising a special education need
child calls for the need of interventions for this group of population. The study was
beneficial as it helped in identifying the link between self-actualization and mental and
physical wellbeing as well as the importance of these interventions in supporting the
families of special need children.
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METHODOLOGY
Study design
This study will utilize the interpretivism qualitative study methodology and paradigm.
Interpretivism is the design of social science that opposes the concept of positivism.
This is the study approach that helps to provide a better understanding of human
values, belief and attitudes (Glaser & Strauss., 2017). Interpretivism ensures that the
data mainly focuses on the humanistic social reality that is supported by the use of
qualitative research methodology (Thanh & Thanh., 2015). This approach relies on the
human subject that is an instrument to measure some attitude, perception of belief
regarding social reality or phenomenon. The main approach of this concept is that
people make own assumptions and choices that are not related to facts and laws of
science. The benefit of this approach is that the researcher could see the participants in
a non-artificial environment (Thanh & Thanh., 2015). The methodology of this research
is qualitative mixed that utilizes the qualitative data with primary and secondary
methods of collection. Qualitative research is a form of inquiring study that evaluates the
information collected in the form of behaviour, pattern, setting etc. The aim is to capture
expressive information related to attitude, belief, values, feelings and behaviour of the
individual (Silverman., 2016). This methodology is suitable for this study as the study
aims at analysing the perception of the family members of special education need
children. It helps in a broader collection of data with the generalization of results.
Search strategy
The search for data and literature regarding the chosen topic is known as a search
strategy. The search strategy mainly includes the use of keywords and Booleans that
are fed in the databases to yield the results for the current literature and articles on it.
The relevant articles and literature are sorted with the help of applying inclusion and
exclusion criteria and most relevant of the researches are used to formulate the
literature review that is a basic tool for secondary data collection. The literature review is
an easy and simple method that enables the author to formulate a strong claim and
argument for the chosen topic (Glaser & Strauss., 2017). Also, it provides a good
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amount of evidence that is authentic in nature to support the claims. The search is done
using authentic and reliable databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and Cinahl
etc. These databases are used to search for literature both published and grey literature
to critically evaluate the most relevant findings.
KEYWORDS
Special needs children + impact on parents + impact on physical health + impact on
psychosocial and emotional wellbeing + quality of life.
Data collection
The data collection method is the process of collecting data for the study. The data is
the information that is used to support or formulate the study to find the results and
conclude the findings to justify the hypothesis. There are two ways of collecting data
depending on the methods used in the study that are primary and secondary. The
primary data collection method is defined as collection of first hand data with help of
experiments, interviews, observations and questionnaire or focus groups, whereas the
secondary data is collected by means of literature review that is the academic review
used to revisit existing data on the chosen topic to find new dimensions and
interpretations for the current study (Creswell & Creswell., 2017). Primary data is more
reliable and authentic as it is the first-hand fresh data that is devoid of any bias and
errors whereas the secondary data is not that strong and has certain limitations of
involving pre-existing bias from the primary studies (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault., 2015).
This research is a mixed study that uses both primary and secondary methods off data
collection. The primary data collection method used here will be as per the
interpretivism approach that is questionnaire provided to the parents of 10 special need
children. The secondary data will be collected by following a proper search strategy to
collect the most authentic data and relevant articles to be reviewed.
Reliability and validity
The data collected through interpretivism is usually valid and reliable. It is trustworthy as
the human perceptions are not only explained but provided with the logical explanation
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of why the particular claim is valid. It also tends to undermine the reliability and
representativeness (Creswell & Creswell., 2017). To ensure validity in qualitative
research the appropriateness of tools, processes, and data is to be evaluated. The
validity is ensured as the research question, method and design are appropriate for one
another or not. Also, the analysis if the data and collection have to be validated to
ensure the research validity. Reliability of this research being qualitative is the exact
replicability of the process and the results in any setting. As qualitative researches have
different paradigm the reliability is a challenging issue to attain. Yet the consistency of
data and results ensures the reliability of the information in this research (Glaser &
Strauss., 2017).
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Ethical consideration is defined as the regulations set to be followed regarding the
proper and ethical conduction of the study (Hammersley., 2015). The main aim of
ethical consideration is to safeguard and protect the integrity, dignity and health of the
human subjects involved in the study. Ethics ensure that the participants involved in the
study are provided adequate information, asked for properly signed consent and are
informed regarding the regulations of the study and confidentiality of their data
(Hammersley., 2015). The ethics aim at protecting and safeguarding the human
subjects and participants of the research under human rights and declaration. The main
rules off following the research ethics is to inform the participants regarding exact
procedure of the study, to gain signed consent from the participants, to provide them
with compensation in case of any violation of their rights, to protect the participants from
any social, physical or mental harm potential to the research process, and to ensure
confidentiality of the data of the person and the details they provide by ensuring them
that the data will be handled under safe circumstances and by a responsible person and
will only be used under the research sector (Hammersley., 2015).
Informed consent is the basic priority of any research ethics. According to the research
ethics committee, the consent of the person participating in the research is to be gained
before the conduction of any study. The proper and legitimate consent will result in
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ethics committee granting permission to the researcher to initiate his study. In this
study, the signed and pre-informed consent were to be provided by the participants
before initiation of the study. The consent forms are a well-formulated document that
has attached the information sheet with it, this enables the participants to be informed
regarding the entire process of research and sign the consent form where they agree to
provide details regarding own self that is to be kept confidential (Connelly., 2014). The
consent form includes agreeing to the participation in the study on own will and without
any restrictions and also mentions the procedure of leaving the research at any point of
the study. Providing a signed consent is essential for the research to be ethically
competent and safe. Other than this the confidentiality and anonymity of the participants
will be ensured in this study by using the data by anonymous tagging and this will
reduce bias as well as ensure the use of details only for research purpose. The potential
risk to the participants in this study is mainly mental trauma due to use of details by
unethical manner or revisiting their state of the child (Connelly., 2014). This study will
benefit the participants by making them aware of what strategies can be used to help
them to cope with their lives and care for their special education requiring children.
CONCLUSION
Children with these disabilities are not easy to be educated as they face various
challenges in coping with the style of curriculum and a normal education system that is
built for a healthy child. The families of these children face a variety of challenges while
trying to educate them. Not only in the field of education but the overall life of the
families of special need children is encircled by tremendous care and tedious and trying
tasks of caring for the children. This research will benefit the population of the UK that is
direct and indirect care for individuals with special education needs. It will also help the
government and policy maker by highlighting the effects of special need children on the
families. It was found that the parents of special need children suffer more physical
health issues than others. It was also seen that the special education child affected the
parents and families in a variety of manner by the intellectual disability they possess,
9

special requirements of their care, the financial burden on the family due to expensive
care, and parent's education level.
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REFERENCES
Bekenkamp, J., Groothof, H.A.K., Bloemers, W. and Tomic, W., (2014). The relationship
between physical health and meaning in life among parents of special needs children.
Connelly, L. M. (2014). Ethical considerations in research studies. Medsurg
Nursing, 23(1), 54-56.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative,
and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.
Gascoigne, E. (2014). Working with Parents: As partners in special educational needs.
Routledge.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (2017). Discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for
qualitative research. Routledge.
Hammersley, M. (2015). On ethical principles for social research. International Journal
of Social Research Methodology, 18(4), 433-449.
Hartley, S. L., & Schultz, H. M. (2015). Support needs of fathers and mothers of children
and adolescents with an autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and
developmental disorders, 45(6), 1636-1648.
Herrema, R., Garland, D., Osborne, M., Freeston, M., Honey, E., & Rodgers, J. (2017).
Mental wellbeing of family members of autistic adults. Journal of autism and
developmental disorders, 47(11), 3589-3599.
Hodkinson, A. (2015). Key issues in special educational needs and inclusion. Sage.
Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.
Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research
methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.
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