Stacy Kane Greenzeig knows that being the parent of a child with special needs is a difficult, time consuming, emotionally draining, and a selfless job. As the mother of a son with disabilities, she has faced the challenges first hand and learned quickly that researching treatments, visiting doctors' offices, and working to help her child in any…

The guide presents a model for helping parents of handicapped children and professionals work together. The Project Bridge model calls for parents and professionals to act as a team in delivering a workshop for other parents and educators. Aspects of planning the workshop, including choice of location, publicity, and cost questions are reviewed.…

This handbook is a basic "how-to" guide to help one's Parent Training and Information Center (PTI) or Community Parent Resource Center (CPRC) evaluate its programs. Evaluation may seem overwhelming, but a center already performs some steps of the evaluation process for the reports required by the Technical Assistance ALLIANCE for Parent Centers…

The program is intended to increase skills in parents of young handicapped children. The coordinator's guide traces the background and development of the parent involvement materials, presents suggestions for workshop planning and actual implementation, and discusses training approaches for developing small group facilitation skills. The companion…

Developed by the Florida Parent to Parent Support Program, two manuals provide materials for developing local parent-to-parent support groups for parents of children with a broad range of special needs, including those with sensory, physical, or learning disorders; developmental disabilities; emotional disturbances; and those at high risk for or…

A 5-day workshop is described which was designed specifically to prepare Lesotho parents to act as trainers for other parents with a child who has a disability. Twelve months after participating in the workshop, participants (n=21) had organized 19 training events throughout Lesotho for families and community groups. (Contains 13 references.)…

This case study describes a model for transition from early intervention programs to special education preschool programs. The model focuses on educating and empowering parents to become long-term, independent, informed advocates for their children, via a program involving workshops and individual family transition assistance provided by…

The Parent Involvement Research Program assessed the extent of parental involvement in the educational process of handicapped children in Kansas, and implemented three training models in urban and rural areas to increase parent participation levels. The three training models were teacher-to-parent contact, parent-to-parent contact, and community…

The first National Conference for Parents of the Handicapped (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1980) is summarized. Contents of 11 workshop presentations are described, including parents' roles as advocates, parental concerns, the influence of diet on behavior, genetics, in home respite care, legal issues, and parent coalitions and organizations. An…

This article describes an early intervention model for enhancing developmental opportunities for a child with a disability by expanding on and strengthening the parent-child relationship in a group environment. The theoretical underpinnings and components of the Parents Interacting with Infants model are discussed, along with practice indicators…

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the 2-year operation of Michigan's Parents Training Parents Program, which provides parents of handicapped children with knowledge, skills, information, and support to obtain increased and improved services for their children. Staff and volunteers (all parents of handicapped children) provide…

The document contains a description and an evaluation of the activities conducted during the first year of the Indiana Parent Training Project (IPTP), a project to train parents in their rights and responsibilities as guaranteed by federal and state laws governing the education of handicapped children. The following public information efforts were…

Utilizing a workshop format, 10 Spanish-surnamed parents of minority group handicapped children were introduced to techniques in behavior management thus allowing them to become actively involved in the educational process. The parents (8 females and 2 males, ranging in age from 20 to 45 years) were identified by the school as minority and as…

The report describes the achievements of a project designed to promote vocational and career development of bilingual handicapped students in inner city high schools through training their parents to be both career educators and advocates for improved services and opportunities. The program used co-trainers who were bilingual/bicultural to conduct…

Materials have been assembled in these appendices to provide practical help to Community Advisory Committees (groups composed of parents, handicapped pupils or adults, professionals, and interested citizens). Materials are grouped under the following headings: (1) Legislative Fact Sheets, (2) Parent Handbooks and Pamphlets, (3) Newsletters, (4)…