Holistic Approach
 What
do we need to know about our
students that could be important to
delivery of educational services?
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Chapter 2: Family Life Cycle
 Stage
1: Newly married couple
 Stage 2: Families with young
children (0-5)
 Stage 3: Families of Elementary
Aged Children
 Stage 4: Families with Adolescents
 Stage 5: Families Launching Children
 Stage 6: Families in Later Life
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What is the legal basis for family
involvement in special education?
 IDEA
requires that families be given
every opportunity to participate in
each step of their child’s school
program. In addition, it is just good
common sense that families be
involved.
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How does the birth of an
exceptional child affect the family?
The birth of a child with a disability may
violate a family’s expectations.
 Parents may experience shock, followed
by grief, on learning their child has a
disability.
 Anger is another common emotion parents
grapple with.
 Most parents reach a point of adjustment
and acceptance.
 Shock, anger, grief, anger, and acceptance
may recur throughout child rearing.

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What are some of the ways in which exceptional children
contribute to the strength and richness of a family?
 Being
a source of joy
 Providing a means of learning life’s
lessons
 Giving and receiving love
 Supplying a sense of blessing or
fulfillment
 Contributing a sense of pride
 Strengthening the family
 (Turnbull
& Turnbull, 1990, p. 151)
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Family
Systems
Conceptu
al
Framewor
k
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Family Characteristics
 Characteristics
of Exceptionality
 Characteristics of the Family
 Personal Characteristics
 Special Challenges
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Family Functions
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How can the family members and professionals
learn to work together as partners?
Evaluate your communication skills.
Be flexible in your expectations and
requirements for families.
Build on strengths rather than focusing
on negatives.
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Deliberate steps
 Parents
have the right
– to be informed and to consent
– to participate in placement and program
decision
– to due process
– and to not participate
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Fundamentals of Collaboration
 Characteristics
– Voluntary
– Requires Parity
– Based on Mutual Goals
– Depends on Shared Responsibility for
participation and decision making
– Sharing of Resources
– Share Accountability for Outcomes
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Emergent Characteristics
 Individuals
who collaborate vale this
interpersonal style
 Professionals who collaborate trust
one another
 A sense of community evolves from
collaboration
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Societal trends
 Directly
related to collaboration is a
feeling of ownership and
commitment which evolves through a
collaborative activity.
 Person- to – person interactions are
growing (even with the technology
explosion)
 We are turning to collaboration and
reliance on others to accomplish our
goals.
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School Collaboration
There is a trend where school staff
members are meeting and jointly planning
staff development activities that are
relevant to their particular school.
 Concept of teaming.
 Student learning approaches emphasize
collaboration.
 Principals are forming school leadership
teams which share responsibility for
decisions.

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Special Education Collaboration
 Program
philosophies: LRE,
mainstreaming, integration, inclusion
 Service delivery options:
Intervention assistance teams, coteaching and consultation
 Specialized instruction: Peer tutoring,
adaptive instruction, modified
curriculum
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School structure
 Not
necessarily conducive to
collaboration.
 Classrooms are often private
domains.
 Student teaching practicum
 Problem solving steps
 Collaborative model is expensive
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PIGS
FACE
Johnson & Johnson Collaborative Teaming
Process
 Positive
 Assigned Roles
interdependence
– Facilitator
– Recorder
 Individual
– Timekeeper
accountability
– Observer
 Group Processing
– Encourage
 Social Skills
– Jargon-buster
 FACE to face
interactions
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How does the family participate in the exceptional
child’s development at every stage of life?
Early intervention : Individualized Family
Service Plan (IFSP). Developed
collaboratively between family and the
family service team.
Minnesota has the IIIP
Under IDEA, parents are encouraged to be
active members of their child’s decision
making team IEP through IEP/ITP
Often as continuing care givers throughout
adulthood.
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Complexities of Collaboration
 Marilyn
Friend, 2000
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Teaming
Team approaches have been integral in
special education and related services.
“An education team is a set of
interdependent individuals with unique
skills and perspectives who interact
directly to achieve their mutual goal of
providing students with effective
educational programs and services.”
(Friend & Cook, 2000)
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Characteristics of Teams
 Awareness
of team membership
 Regulation of Interactions by Shared
Norms
 Independence of Team Members
 Team Members; Unique Skills and
Perceptions
 Shared Goal of Effective Service
Delivery
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Developmental Stages
 Forming
 Storming
 Norming
 Performing
 Adjourning
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Forming
 members
examine their task,
learn more about each other, and
clarify their reason for existing
as a team. Members tend to
want clear instructions from
others and they are polite in
their efforts to learn about each
other and their purpose.
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Storming
 members
resolve issues of power,
leadership, procedures, and goals.
Demonstrates that a group can
become a team – members are more
comfortable with each other &
communicate freely.
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Norming
 teams
establish role relationships
and define leadership roles and
procedures for accomplishing their
work. Members begin to build trust
and they redefine and establish role
relationships and procedures, Handle
conflicts, and establish patterns of
functioning.
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Performing
 members
align themselves and work
toward achieving the team’s goal. A
teams development levels off and it
can devote its primary efforts to
accomplishing its goals.
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Adjourning
 having
completed its task, the team
disbands
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Benefits of Teams
 Efficient
and potential for high
quality outcomes.
 Different disciplinary perspectives
 Implementation of a coordinated and
coherent program is more efficient
when everyone is in communication
with each other.
 Trust
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Team models (disciplinary)
Multi
Inter
Trans
Information
Exchanged
Shared
Shared
(ongoing)
Service
goals
Discrete
services
Coordinated
services
Holistic
services
Roles/tasks
(goals)
Independent Complementary
Blended/
Integrated
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Student Centered Teams
 Special
Education Teams
 Student- Centered Problem-Solving
Teams
– Teacher Assistance Teams
– Intervention Assistance Teams
– Pre-referral Intervention Teams
– Service Delivery Teams: co-teaching,
teaching teams in middle school, &
grade level teams.
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Effectiveness of Teams
 Teams’
goals are clear
 Members’ needs are met
 Members have individual
accountability
 Group process maintain the team
 Team members have leadership skills
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Family Interaction Patterns
..”behavior is not solely dependent
upon what is going on in that
person’s head. Rather, the behavior
is maintained by a complex set of
interactions that occur with regularity
and can be predicted by observing
the family system over time (Nichols
& Schwartz, 1995)”
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Boundaries
Cite some examples of families or
systems in which you (based on the
reading of Ch. 3) have determined
their place on the boundary
definition continuum.
disengaged  clear  enmeshed
(p. 47)
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Family Structures
 Spousal
subsystem
 Parental subsystem
 Sibling subsystem
 Extrafamilial subsystem
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Functions of subsystems
Spousal Parental Sibling Extra
familial
Tasks/
support
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Assignments for next week.
 Meet
in Library Rotunda
 Be prepared to ask some
questions….
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Major Family Systems Models
(appendix A)
Satir
Communication Process Model
Bowen’s
Multigenerational Theory
Structural
Strategic
Family Therapy
Family Therapy
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Family Systems Models
Conceptual Framework Activity



4 groups- divide up the class
Compare (similarities and
differences) of the 4 conceptual
frameworks’ models discussed in
Appendix A of your text.
Each group will decide how to tackle
this comparison activity and present
the accomplished goal.
Your group will come to a consensus
on which family system model most
appropriately assists professionals
in understanding professionals and
why.
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