The purposes of this study were, first to clarify the effect of cyber education on the stress of fathers who had children with developmental disorders. Second to clarify the effect of the active participation on fathers' acceptance of their children w...
The purposes of this study were, first to clarify the effect of cyber education on the stress of fathers who had children with developmental disorders. Second to clarify the effect of the active participation on fathers' acceptance of their children with developmental disorders.
The subjects selected in this study were 39 fathers who volunteered for parent's education program through the internet homepage. Their children were an age of preschool year, receiving the early special education at the institutes.
The cyber education program was comprised of two parts. The first part was Family-Centered Intervention with 'Father-Child Play Program'. The second part was making Father-Researcher Partnerships: checking up on the father-child interaction at home and counseling to cope with the child's deviant behaviors on the cyber conversation room.
The counseling was carried out for 2 months up to 40 sessions, which included 1 hour per session and 5 times per week. The researcher trained and encouraged fathers to promote 'Father-Child Play Program' effectively when fathers reported interaction activities of weekday program. Fathers and researcher made strong partnerships so that fathers might become a good playmate and educator for their children.
The results of this study are as follows :
First, as compared the comparative group(non-participating group) with the experimental group(participating group), we found the contradictory results. The comparative group got stress more than before the cyber education in every region, whereas the experimental group decreased in every region and showed significant difference in educational environment region. And the active group(participated more than 20 times) declined more sharply in every stress regions than the passively participated group(participated 1-10 times).
Second, further analyses indicated that actively involved fathers were stepping 5 stages. Starting our program, they were on the first stage, conflict, sadness and destined thinking. But getting through educated and encouraged by the cyber program, they progressed their mind positively to the second stage, trying to overcome the hardship. And passed the third stage, asking for help, through the fourth stage, adapting time. Finally they reached the last stage, making personal changes and turned their perception toward their retarded child.
In conclusion, the cyber education is an alternative educational system for decreasing fathers' marital stress. And father's active participation turned to accept their children and change their own lives more positively. Thus, this program can be recommended as a family-centered early intervention program for parents who have children with developmental disorders or infantile autisms. Especially, the researcher recommend this program to the people as a new model, who reside in rural areas or small cities where educational services are restricted.