Counseling Program to Increase Mothers' Awareness toward Daily Living Activities of Their Blind Child

Abstract

Summary V ision is regarded as an important prerequisite for general development and achievement of independence in children. Activities of Daily Living (ADL) are daily routine actions and include self-care routines such as eating, dressing, toileting and grooming, and also include skills such as language that are associated with self-sufficiency. Many self-care skills that are usually learned by observation need to be taught to children who have blindness (Spellings, 2010). A blind child may present difficulties in the performance of ADL as a great deal of vision is required. It is very hard for a blind child to spontaneously learn to perform ADL when compared with a child who is not blind, especially because visual imitation of various actions as well as an understanding of the situation is not possible. The child needs contact with the objects, to experiment, feel and hear how the actions are performed before understanding them. Therefore, as a blind child cannot spontaneously and naturally learn the ADL like any normal child, it is of great importance to verify the opportunities of intellectual development during a period of life when lack of adequate motivation may seriously affect the child (Fazzi, 2006).The mother plays a significant role in the development of the blind child. It is the mother who exerts the major influence on the development of the blind child from birth to maturity (Spellings, 2010). Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to develop and implement counseling program for increasing the mothers' awareness toward daily living activities of their blind child. This aim was achieved through: 1. Assessing the mothers' awareness toward daily living activities of their blind child. 2. Determining the blind child's needs and problems related to daily living activities. 3. Detecting the mothers' coping patterns toward their blind child. 4. Developing and implementing counseling program for the blind child's mothers. 5. Evaluating the effect of counseling program on increasing awareness and coping of mothers who have blind child. Technical design: Research design: A quasi-experimental was used to evaluate the effect of counseling program on the progress of mothers' awareness toward daily living activities of their blind child.

Setting: The study was conducted at The Demonstration Center for the Rehabilitation of the Blind Child. It divided into two departments includes early care & family guidance department and preschool children's care department. There is no internal department for blind children; they are reluctant to him on a regular basis. The center is located at 184 Bridge Street Suez Heliopolis. The Demonstration Center for the Rehabilitation of the Blind affiliated to the Ministry of Social Affairs& Ministry of Health at Cairo Governorate. It is the only governmental organization serving Cairo Governorate, Giza Governorate and Al Qalubia Governorate and serving this target of population.