Private special education and rehabilitation center during the pre-school support services family participation process: Hearing lost a child and family

In this research, it is aimed to examine the family participation in the support service process presented to pre-school age children with special need who were attending private special education and rehabilitation centers. Participants of the research, which was designed as a single case study and carried out in a private special education and rehabilitation center (PSERC) under the Ministry of National Education; the pre-school age student with hearing loss, a student's individual education teacher, family and education coordinator of PSERC. The data collection techniques used in the research were observation, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, documents, researcher's diary and participant information form. The obtained data were analyzed by inductive analysis during and after the research process. Analysis of the data shows that incompatibility of the Guidance and Research Center (GRC) report and the expectation of the parents with the student performance in the support service process were found to negatively affect the planning. It has been seen that the expectation of the parents have been tried to be prevented with sharing information meetings and informative note sharing. Although it is stated that family participation is necessary in the support service process and that various family involvements have been carried out in the institution, it has been seen that family participation in the process are limited to informing negotiations and informative note sharing. To sum up, findings can be true not only to a child with a hearing loss but also to all preschool children. From this point of view, it is suggested that the process of providing support services in the PSERCs' should be determined, especially how family participation can be increased.