childhood disability is defined and
experienced. It is important for clinicians to
assess how the family defines the child’s
disability or the child’s behavior. Considering
the examples given above, clinicians should
be aware of the many different ways that
families might view a presenting problem.
The family’s assessment is an important
consideration in how an intervention proceeds.
Culture also influences how families,
primarily the mothers, seek help and support.
It is important for clinicians working with
families of young children to recognize that
families from other cultures may not be aware
of school policies, school culture, and social
service agency culture within the United
States. In addition, families from other
cultures may have different traditions
regarding their relationships to school and
agency authorities (e.g., only the father speaks
to authorities on behalf of the family or
extended family members are invited to
school meetings as well as parents). Clinicians
need to be open to the ways in which families
communicate with them about their needs. At
the same time, clinicians need to be willing to
orientate families to U.S. school culture and
policies.
Intervention
The review of literature points out that
caregivers experience different impacts of
having a child with a disability and different
needs for support related to the needs of the
child, the relationship of the caregiver (e.g.
father, grandmother), and the cultural context.
One of the needs of caregivers is to be given
opportunities to nurture healthy family
functioning and find positive meaning in their
care giving experience. As one special
educator and sibling of a person with a
disability points out, professionals need to
allow families to “be a family first, and then
do programming after that”. He further