Name
Plenary Session 7: Dad's Involvement in the Care, Development and Education of their Children with Deafblindness
Date & Time
Thursday, July 27, 2023, 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
Location Name
Canada Hall 1
Country of Submission
USA/Italy
Description

Recent decades have brought increasing research on father's roles in families and their contributions to children's development and education. While research on father's parenting experiences was once quite limited, a solid basis of work has emerged in the past decade. However, this research almost exclusively considers fathers of typically developing children and very few studies have considered the experiences of fathers of children with disabilities and even less attention to fathers of children with deafblindness. Such research on father's experiences with children with deafblindness is of critical importance in informing the work of educators, therapists and medical professionals to highlighting avenues for intervention, and supporting collaborative family-centered educational and health care partnerships. The literature indicates that father involvement contributes to the achievement of developmental and learning goals for their children with developmental disabilities. However, very little is reflected in the literature regarding how these fathers perceive their involvement in their children's educational and medical settings, the quality of these partnerships with professionals, and factors that would optimize father's involvement, trust and satisfaction in their children's development and education. The only research focus that this researcher is aware of regarding fathers of children with deafblindness (CHARGE Syndrome) is the work of Dr. Timonthy Hartshorne, Central Michigan University. That said, this presentation will present my on-going research regarding the nature, constraints and needs of fathers (male parenting figures) of children with deafblindness. Insights into the fathering experiences of families with children with deafblindness focusing on a subset of fathers of children with CHARGE Syndrome from both United States and Italy.