Abstract

The present study was intended to find out the impact of Parental attitude on the Education of Children with Visual Impairment in Buea Municipality. Specific objectives were to examine the influence of parental motivation on the education of children with visual impairment, investigate how parental perception towards the Education of children with visual impairment affects their academic achievement, and to find out the extent to which parents are responsible in the education of their visually impaired children.

The study adopted a survey research design. Questionnaires to measure the impact of Parental attitude on the Education of Children with Visual Impairment in Buea were administered to 15 parents of Molyko, they were selected using the purposive sampling technique. The descriptive analysis in particular frequencies, percentages, and averages was used to analyze the data.

The findings of the study indicated that: parent motivate has an impact on children with visual impairment in achieving a higher level in education as they provide all their child’s academic needs and always celebrate their children’s achievement no matter how small.

Parental perception affects the education of children with visual impairment since they expect their children to become the best in the future. How Parents are responsible for providing the educational needs affect the education of children with visual impairment since they guide their child and are actively involved in doing his/her homework and by so doing; improve their performance in school.

The researcher design used is the sample survey design. Based on this finding, some recommendations were made to counselors, teachers, and parents to encourage their children to do their best, in their academic process which will help them enhances their academic achievement.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Parental role construction for movement in children’s education reflects parent’s expectations and believes about what they should do in relation to children’s schooling. Roles are generally constructed from parents’ expectations and the experience of pertinent others (Biddle, 1986). Applied to parents’ involvement in children’s education, parental roles construction appears to define the range of activities that parents believe it’s important, necessary, and permissible for their own engagement in children’s schooling (Hoover Pempsey Bassel, 1995).

That is generally parents believe it is their duty to get involved in their children’s education but what cut my attention to carrying out this research is not the non-disabled but the visually impaired children, this is because most often in many societies these categories of children are always neglected at home and at school. Bryan, (2005) says persons with low vision have diminished ability to carry out important activities including acquiring an education, living, traveling independently, gaining and retaining employment enjoying and perceiving visual images due to uncorrectable visual impairment.

Visual impairment creates much stress on the person, the family, the school, and society. Zhan, (2006) later the educational problems of these visually impaired children put social strains in the classroom. Parents expect more from the school yet these children spend more hours at home than they spend in school.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the attitude of parents towards their visually impaired children. Different studies noted that the attitudes of parents are perhaps the most important element in the proper development of the child. When parents realize that their children have disabilities, they show different reactions.

Such as; shock, denial, anger, bitterness, and shame, loss of self-esteem, guilt, disappointment, sadness, grief, etc, all these reactions have their own impact on the overall development of the child. According to Warren (1984) and Trachtenberg (1992), the perception of parents towards visual impairment affects the type of treatment and way of handling their child with a disability.

Historically, according to Conti (2014), from medieval time to the twentieth century, In the ancient western world, disabled subjects were excluded from social life. In ancient Greece, for example, disabilities were surmounted only by means of its complete removal, and given that having diseases were considered as punishment attributed by divinities to human beings because of their faults and sins, only a full physical, mental, and moral recovery could reinsert disabled subjects back into the society of “normal” people (Conti, 2014).

Literary sources well document this attitude of the past, and the Homeric poems, in particular, indicate that subsequent disability was generally not foreseen for severe body lesions. (Conti, 2014).

Conceptual frameworks and models have been created and developed to ease the explanation, measurements, and translation of the factors related to disability. The development and effective use of these models paves the way for rehabilitation professionals to better communicate with each other and with other healthcare professions, and to participate effectively in clinical practice by using the same language, which is the “health language” (Conti, 2014).

Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment or vision loss, is a decreased ability to see to a degree that causes problems not fixable by usual means, such as glasses. Some also include those who have a decreased ability to see because they do not have access to glasses or contact lenses. Visual impairment is often defined as a best-corrected visual acuity of worse than either 20/40 or 20/60. The term blindness is used for complete or nearly complete vision loss. (World Health Organization, 14 July 2015).

Theoretically, visual impairment is also classified as congenital (vision loss which is present at birth) or adventitious (vision loss later in life as a result of illness or accident). The age of onset and levels of development before sight loss occurs are crucial factors in the child’s ability to acquire skills and concepts.

In this section, theories will be used that can possibly predict or explain a relationship between the variables of the study. These theorists include; Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow states that we must satisfy each need in turn starting with the first which deals with the most basic needs for survival. Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional wellbeing are satisfied, are we concerned with the higher-order needs? Conversely, if things that satisfy our lower needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher needs (Maslow, 1954).

Each of us is motivated by our needs. Maslow said that needs must be satisfied in a given order. This is such that the needs further up the hierarchy could be met after all basic needs which are the deficiency needs (needs that must be satisfied for survival). The needs at the very top are growth needs. Maslow believes in the fact that children be given chances to make choices in their lives as they grow.

However, following this theory, basic needs must be satisfied first. Thus parents should therefore endeavor to meet these needs in order to enhance their children’s academic achievements. Also, teachers and significant others should give unconditional love to children that is by providing children with their needs in school socially and economically, the students will be motivated to learn and perform better as represented by Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs above.

Theory of achievement motivation by (McClelland, 1954)

According to McClelland (1954), some children are much more successful in school than others who have equal ability and are equally interested in the reward that good grades might eventually bring. McClelland found that students who have a strong need for achievement come from families where parents have set high-performance standards reward and achievement and have encouraged autonomy and independence.

This training for achievement and independence generally takes place in the context of warmth parent-child relationship. Children who are disabled and who do not come from supportive homes, educative homes, and families where parents have set high-performance standards, rewards, and achievements will never perform well.

In the African context, achievement orientation is socially oriented in that a student strives to achieve not in order to promote him or herself but to promote the wellbeing of other family members. Individuals preserve or aspire to do well in order to fulfill the expectation of family members and to fit in the larger group.

Empirically, a study conducted by Ezewu (1994) showed that the socio-economic status of parents affects children’s education and particularly academic achievement in the following ways: the degree of importance which each family attaches to school, financial expenditure including fees, textbooks, and other equipment and lastly facilities available at home. A well-to-do family will have a positive interest in the education of their children whether the child is brilliant or not. This will force parents to see to it that the materials needed are provided for the child with the available resources. Parents will be able to pay children school fees in time, buy textbooks and other material that will help to enhance their children’s academic achievement.

Ezuwu further said that children from a high socio-economic status leave primary school between 9-10years of age while those with low socio-economic status leave primary school between 12-13 years. This shows that the achievement of students in school depends on their parent’s socio-economic background. The availability of facilities such as tables, chairs, light, and well conducive learning environment at home does help the child to learn better. All this should be present at home to help promote student’s learning and their academic performance.

Statement of the Problem

Parental attitude has influenced the education of visually impaired children either negatively or positively. Some of these negative attitudes that have affected the education of visually impaired children are; denier, guilt, viewing the child’s impairment as punishment, feeling personal disgrace.

The above-mentioned attitude affects the child’s education because some of their parents feel reluctant to enroll them in schools, paying their fees, buying their writing materials (brail, brail machine, stylus, etc).

The lives of visually impaired children can change if they are given an equal opportunity like their “normal peers” to go to school. This research is based on how parental attitude will negatively affect the education of children with visual impairment.

Fearing that others would think that the child’s visual impairment was a result of the parent’s having a social disease,

Feeling guilt because of negligence or having violated some moral or social code, and Feeling personally disgraced. The relationship between the visually impaired child and the family is reciprocal. The child affects the family climate while the family in turn affects the child’s development.

According to Winzer (1987), the degree to which a child with a disability can learn and participate in normal activity depends on a number of factors. These are:

The reaction of the child’s nuclear and extended family to the condition, and the family’s acceptance and willingness to focus on the child’s positive potential. The time of diagnosis and intervention, and appropriateness of intervention, whether medical, psychological, educational, or social.

The amount of acceptance by the community. Whether the family is nuclear, single parent, or extended, it plays a powerful role in the child’s social, emotional, behavioral, and academic progress. Taking this into account, the study tries to investigate the attitudes of parents towards their visually impaired children. More specifically, this study tries to get answers to the following basic questions.

1. How did parents feel or react to their children’s visual impairment?
2. What are the beliefs held by parents about the cause of their children’s visual impairment?
3. What were the types of treatments sought by parents for their visually impaired children?
4. What are the beliefs held by parents about their visual impairment children?
5. How much are parents involved in the academic and non-academic development of their visually impaired children?

General Objectives of the Study       

To investigate parental involvement in the education of children with visual impairment in Buea

Specific Objectives

1. To examine the influence of parental motivation on the education of children with visual impairment
2. To examine parental perception towards the Education of children with visual impairment
3. To find out the extent to which parents are responsible for the education of their visually impaired children