Term Paper on "Effects of Parenting Styles on Achievement Level Found in Students in Special Education"

Term Paper 10 pages (2900 words) Sources: 10 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Parenting Styles on Students Achievement in Special Education

Parenting Style

The Effects of Parenting Styles on Student Achievement in Special Education

The discussion and research conducted here will expamine how parenting styles affect a student with a learning disability in achieving success as contextualized by special education. The research will be carried out through a qualitiative literature review, gathering together studies that demonstrate the shortcomings of many parents of special needs children to provide adequate emotional and practice support where educational, emotional and developmental needs are concerned. The Literature Review findings demonstrate that students in special education were found to be experiencing more permissive and sometimes even neglectful parenting styles, ultimately placing them at even a greater risk for educational shortcoming and long-term development deficiencies. Other dimensions of the subject addressed within the literature review will concern how parenting styles can largely determine the type of parent -- child relationship that will be established' how parenting styles can greatly influence the level of development in a child with a learning disability in accomplishing academic goals; and how parenting styles can also be connected to the aptitude of the special needs child where various life skills and competencies are concerned. Also discussed in the paper are theories regarding the consequences of a neglectful level of parental involvement in the child's academic achievmeents; theories concerning the manner in which negative parenting styles can lead to lower achievement measures in children with a learning disability; and theories relating to the consequences of the Authoritative parenting style as a preferred counterpoint. Research studies included here will also demonstrate that special needs children given supportive and positive parenting style and environments will likely achieve at a higher level in the academic context than their counterparts without this support. Furthermore, the research will bring to light many of the frustrations that may be expierenced by special education professionals attempting to encourage positive and healthy parental involvement. Ultimately, the research will produce a set document which can be used as a source of support for parties impacted by the need for positive speical needs parenting orientation.

The Effects of Parenting Styles on Student Achievement in Special Education

Introduction:

Parenting style will have a determinant impact on the growth, development and emotional orientation of a child. This impact may be magnified in the case of special needs children, particularly given the higher level of parental dependency, the greater need for support later into life and the battery of particularized demands. This serves as the basis for the study that follows and proceeds with an interest in evaluating select parenting styles as they relate to cognitive, emotional and social developments in special needs children. The intention of the present study is to produce a document that might contribute to a better understanding of best practices in the parenting of special needs children. This document will be guided by the ambition to identify those parenting styles which lead to the highest and most consistent levels of special education achievements for special needs children.

Rationale:

The importance of measuring and optimizing such special education achievements among special needs children serves as the rationale for the present study, which should contribute to a field in which our knowledge is still evolving. To date, there is little consensus about what factors relating to parenting might ultimately affect certain outcomes in special needs children. Further, with the incredible variance of special needs that might be represented in said population, whether relating to physical handicap or to developmental delay, it is often difficult to know to exactly what extent parenting style might alter outcomes in individual cases. This denotes that there still remains a great need for qualitative research on the relationship between parenting style and developmental outcomes for special needs children. As Darling & Steinberg (1993) point out, "despite broad consensus about the effects of parenting practices on child development, many questions about the construct parenting style remain unanswered. Particularly pressing issues are the variability in the effects of parenting style as a function of the child's cultural background, the processes through which parenting style influences the child's development, and the operationalization of parenting style." (Darling & Steinberg, p. 487)

Given this variability, there is a tremendous demand for actionable data that may be used to guide parents enduring the particular challenges related to special needs parenting. As the research encountered throughout this process will ultimately demonstrate, there is an inextricable relationship between parental stress and the raising of a special needs child. Much of the empirical data encountered on this subject indicates that there is a correlation between this heavy stress level, the higher level of need represented in the child and the difficulty of achieving a parenting style that is consistent, effective and contributory to one's personal ability to cope. As the text by Spratt et al. (2007) indicates, higher Parental Stress (PS) is shown to be a direct consequence of parenting special needs children. Accordingly, Spratt et al. report that "analyses of variance revealed PS to be highest in parents of children with behavior problems only or combined cognitive deficits and behavior problems. Having a child with neither behavior problems nor cognitive impairment, or cognitive impairment alone was associated with lower PS." (Spratt et al., p. 435)

This is to denote that there is a particular need represented amongst the population of parents to special needs children to adopt methods that can alleviate this stress and consequently produce better developmental outcomes in their children. As the research to be conducted hereafter will demonstrate, parenting style will be a substantial role in how well parents cope with the attendant stress of child-rearing and the extended stresses of contending a child's individual set of needs, challenges and deficiencies. This helps to further underscore the importance of this study to the broader discipline of special needs parenting. By examining several different parenting styles, the ambition is differentiate between those styles which have proven effective through empirical evaluation, those styles which have performed well in observational contexts and styles which have largely been invalidated through proof and practice. Whatever the findings in these regards, the discussion is critical to the field based on the relative consensus on the need for parents to find support at an early stage in the process of raising a special needs child. According to Dunst (2000), "the contention that early intervention should include a rich array of child, parent, and family supports (experiences, opportunities, etc.) remains a central tenet of the model." (Dunst, p. 95) Therefore, it is invaluable to create resources such as the present one which can be used to provide support and assistance to parents in this position, to their extended support system and to the professional counselors upon whom they will rely.

Background:

A particular focus of this research is the subject of the Authoritative parenting style. Therefore, before proceeding to a delineation of the methodology, it is important to provide some basic background on this style of special needs parenting. In particular, this discussion denotes the need for balance where evaluation is concerned. Authoritative parenting is decidedly contrasting to the more disconnected and neglectful parenting styles which are of concern to the present study. However, findings do also exist to suggest that authoritative parenting may be damaging in its own regard to both the needs of the child and to the management of parental stress. As the Rationale section above demonstrates, parental stress is an important variable with a determinant relationship to the stability and emotional health of a household. This is important because basic background research actually associated Authoritative parenting with higher levels of parental stress. According to Woolfson & Grant (2006), "findings suggest that the well-established effect of group on stress may be moderated by parenting style. Authoritative parenting may be highly stressful for parents of children with Developmental Delay (DD) to implement, resulting in a decrease in its use across the two age groups." (Woolfson & Grant, p. 177)

This is an important point of background information, primarily because it provides the research with an initial point of contention upon which to speculate where authoritative parenting is concerned. Even as the discussion evaluates the importance of establishing a decisive and highly involved parenting style as a counterpoint to examples of neglect where special needs children are concerned, there is also cause not to fully endorse the authoritative parenting style. The research methodology will set out to examine both dimensions of this subject.

Methodology:

As this is intended as a preliminary discussion on a subject in need of a great deal more qualitative discourse, the research will be largely discursive and rhetorical in nature. The focus of the methodology will be on gathering together an array of sources on the chosen subject in a single location. Therefore, the chosen methodology will be a Literature Review.

The Literature Review will call for a gathering and evaluation of scholarly journal sources regarding parenting styles of special needs children and additionally, journal sources on… READ MORE

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