Educating Rural Parents in South Africa About Their Children’s Cerebral Palsy: Why Wait for Full-Service Schools or Resource Centres?
This research investigated the needs of rural South African parents with children with cerebral palsy for support through specially designed parent guidance programmes. The aim was to determine whether rural parents needed guidance programmes and if so, to provide guidelines for the design of programmes that would address this need. A survey was conducted using a questionnaire with closed items to collect data from 180 parents with children with cerebral palsy living in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape. They were sampled by using a non-random (purposive) sampling method. One hundred and two (102) parents (out of the total of 180) completed the questionnaires and returned them by mail. The same types of questions were used to interview 54 parents. The data was statistically analysed. The findings indicated that all the respondents lacked knowledge of the condition and found it difficult to care for a child with cerebral palsy. Moreover, rural parent guidance programmes are not available in the Eastern Cape or in other provinces in South Africa. As a result, guidelines are suggested which can be used for constructing rural parent guidance programmes.
Keywords: Barriers to Learning, Cerebral Palsy, Lack of Access to Resources, Parent Guidance Programmes, Rural Parents, Special Education
Assoc. Prof. Deirdré Krüger
Associate Professor, Further Teacher Education
Theresia Mamakonyane Sello
Special Education Teacher, Ikhwezi Lokusa Special School, Department of Education South Africa