Family Perspectives
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BSL
ADPS staff have worked closely with the National Deaf Children's Society
and Deaf Children's Societies in Scotland to incorporate the perspectives
of the families of deaf children and young people within the overall
work of the project.
Family Questionnaire
In particular, we have collaborated on a Family Questionnaire. The aim of this questionnaire was to collect information about the deaf child within the family context and to gather information about the family and the family's experiences and views. The Family Questionnaire includes, for example, questions relating to the languages used within the family by the deaf child, the parents and sibling; the involvement of the family in placements decisions relating to their child; the type of support received from different professionals and agencies; aspects of the child's personal and social development, including involvement in social and sporting activities. The Questionnaire also includes questions relating to the socio-economic status of the family.
Why do we want this information?
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Firstly, NDCS, Deaf Children's Societies and ourselves want to gain a
greater understanding of the experiences of families of deaf children.
This will help in the planning of support and in developing initiatives
with parents to improve the quality of life of both families and their
deaf children.
Secondly, we want to link in data from this questionnaire with the data from our National Survey. We hope to be able to explore more fully which factors might affect overall achievement.
We have asked some questions in the survey relating to income and occupation. These may seem rather intrusive questions. The reason we ask them is so that we can compare our findings with other educational findings.
The survey
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BSL
The Family Questionnaires were sent out in January 2004. Schools and
support services for deaf children kindly agreed to send them out for
us. Deaf Children's Societies throughout Scotland provided parent volunteers.
The volunteers answered queries from local parents. They also offered
to help parents fill in the questionnaires if necessary. We are very
grateful to the volunteers for their help.
BSL and spoken language interpretation was offered to those who requested it. 27 BSL video translations of accompanying information were sent out. Urdu interpreters were twice booked to translate volunteer/parent interviews at home.
A prize draw was held for those who returned their questionnaires by 16 February. Isobel McNeil drew the winning tickets (Isobel is chairperson of East of Scotland Deaf Children's Society).
Isobel
McNeil and Marian Grimes holding up the two winning tickets.
We kept the option open until summer for late returns of questionnaires. Our trusty volunteers helped to remind parents by newsletters etc. In the end we received over 400 completed forms.
What happens now?
The information from the questionnaires has been inputted into a database. We are currently analysing the data. Watch this space for developments.
Maintained by ADPS Webmaster | Last updated on 05 March 2013
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