Peer-reviewed article
Promoting Participation for Children With Disabilities in Belgium-Parents' Perspectives.
Dupont E, Peeters B, Piskur B ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study explores how parents of children with disabilities in Belgium help their children participate in daily life. Researchers interviewed nine parents and found that parents face significant challenges in finding appropriate schools, care, leisure activities and support services. Parents experience barriers related to both social systems and physical environments that limit their children's participation. The study highlights that parents need tailored support and that their knowledge should shape policies and practices.
Key points
- Parents of children with disabilities experience difficulties finding tailored care, education and leisure activities
- Barriers to participation exist in both social and physical environments
- Parents expressed concerns about school inclusion and their child's social relationships
- Parents experience emotional stress while managing family life with a child with disabilities
- Parental knowledge and experience should be integrated into policy and practice decisions
Limitations
This qualitative study involved only nine parents in Belgium, so findings may not generalise to other contexts or larger populations. The study captures parental perspectives but does not measure actual outcomes for children's participation or test interventions.
Abstract
Background Children with disabilities (e.g., with autism spectrum disorder or wheelchair use due to a physical disability) face challenges in participating in daily life. These participation barriers are the result of limiting influences present in both the child's social and physical environments. Parents play a key role in creating environments that facilitate their child's participation. The aim of this study is to explore in depth how parents of children with disabilities make sense of their thoughts, feelings and concerns as they reflect on their strategies, challenges and needs with a focus on how they facilitate their children's participation. Methods Nine parents of children with disabilities were interviewed. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results Four major themes emerged from the analysis: (1) parents' experiences and concerns with systems and regulatory frameworks, (2) parents' feelings and concerns about the child's school life, (3) parents' efforts and thoughts while promoting their child's leisure activities and social relationships and (4) parents' emotional experiences and concerns in shaping family life. Parents experience difficulties in finding tailored care, education and leisure activities for their child and they search for appropriate assistance, schools and leisure activities. Conclusions This study provides an in-depth exploration of how parents articulate and make sense of their experiences. Parental strategies, challenges and needs emerge within both social and physical environments. Parents reported barriers to inclusion and expressed a need for tailored support to enhance their child's participation. The findings underscore the importance of integrating parental knowledge into shaping policy and practice.