Posted on Oct. 22: CanChild to ease challenges faced by families with children with disabilities
Helping understand and ease the challenges faced by families of children with disabilities is the goal of a new study at CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster.
Led by Gillian King, CanChild investigator, and with $85,644 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), researchers at CanChild will gather information from interviews with up to 24 families of children with Down syndrome or autism from across Ontario in the next three years.
The study, “Understanding the Values, Priorities, and World Views of Families Raising Children with Chronic Developmental Conditions”, is aimed at discovering how parenting a child with a disability affects families' values, priorities, and views.
“As time goes on, there is an adaptation and accommodation process. What it means to a family to have a child with a disability may change,” says King, a social scientist with CanChild, located in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster. She is an assistant clinical professor in the School and research director at Thames Valley Children's Centre in London, Ontario.
“Over time, what family members consider to be important may shift,” says King.
The information about typical changes in values and world views should enable other families to anticipate changes they might undergo, says King. Service providers will also be able to use the study findings to match their recommendations to the changing priorities and concerns of families, resulting in better quality of services.
“We are hoping it will lead to practical strategies so families will be able to chart out where they are headed, which should make their life a little easier,” says King.
The interviews will be co-ordinated through the Thames Valley Children's Centre with assistance from the Down Syndrome Association of Ontario, the Hamilton Family Network, the Family Alliance and various chapters of the Autism Society Ontario. Interviews will be carried out during two major transition periods for these families the child's entry into school and their transition into high school.
The study continues a program of research that King and CanChild researchers have conducted for the past 13 years on family-centred service. It is a natural progression from the work that has been done on parent stress. Interviews with families will give great insight into how family priorities change over time, says King.
