A Review of 'Family Involvement in Education of Special Needs Students: A Systematic
Literature Review' by Mokhtar et al."
1.0 Introduction
In the case of special education, the interrelatedness of families and schools bear the ultimate
responsibility in the educational and personal needs of the children with learning disabilities. To
support this, Khairunnisa Mokhtar, Rozniza Zaharudin, Suzzanna Amir, and Nurul Faizzah
Mokhtar have conducted a systematic literature review on the subject titled “Family Involvement
in Education of Special Needs Students.” The authors have sought to map the existing
knowledge of this important area to highlight the complexity of family involvement and the
implications for practice in special education.
In general, the systematic literature review conducted by Mokhtar et al. has several main
roles. Firstly, it aims to synthesize the current state of knowledge regarding family participation
and its implications for the education of students with special needs. To this end, by
consolidating the results of the analysis of a vast amount of publications, the review also intends
to present an extensive overview of the typology and size of familial involvement in special
education settings. Furthermore, the review seeks to establish literature voids and areas that need
further study and hence map out research directions that will improve families’ engagement in
schools for children with special needs.
This paper serves as a review and analysis of the article "Family Involvement in Education of
Special Needs Students: Khairunnisa Mokhtar and colleagues’ article is titled, “Family
involvement: A Systematic Literature Review” After this article introduction, the subsequent
sections of the report will discuss the conceptual framework used in the article, the method used
to identify and synthesize literature, the dimensions and effects of family involvement discussed
in the article, factors influencing involvement, the gaps in research identified by the authors, and
the recommendations from their article. It is through the use of this structure that we expect to
gain important information regarding the nature of family involvement in special education and
what this means to practice and policy.
2.0 Definition and Conceptual Framework’
2.1 weighted assessment of special education and family involvement
This paper focuses on parental engagement in special education which is the promotion
and support of parents, foster parents or other members of the family in the process of education
of the child with disabilities. It goes further than just participating at school activities to be
actively involved in decision making, to be your own and your child’s advocate, as well as a
strong partner for child educators and experts in the child’s learning process. It can include
participation in IEP meetings for the child, helping them with their homework and tasks, and
frequent communication with teachers, and the lobbying for the needs of a child to other people
in this complex social space.
2. 2 frameworks
As mentioned earlier, Mokhtar et al.’s review is built on four theoretical frameworks that
elucidate the definition and understanding of family involvement in special education. One of
them is Epstein’s typology of interconnected enchiladas of influence that assume that educational
outcomes require cooperative efforts of families, schools, and communities (Epstein, 2011). This
model also captures the inter-rationality of these spheres for learning and development and the
centrality of mutual interdependency between families and school.
Second, the ecological systems theory proposed by Bronfenbrenner (1979) can help
understand the multifaceted role of role of family engagement to special education. This theory
focuses on the interdependent processes between people and their environment, focusing on the
contexts of formal (e. g., family, school) and informal (e. g., norms, culture) and its impact on
developing family-school relationships and delivery of special education to children with special
needs.
2.3 family involvement importance
Parental participation is established to be an essential component in encouraging more
positive results for students that have some form of learning disabilities. Several studies show a
clear academic achievement, better social behaviors, and higher self-esteem when families are
highly involved in their child education. Furthermore, it has been established that the
implications of family involvement do improve school attendance among students, reduce the
students’ behavioral problems and enhance their graduation rates especially for children with
learning disabilities.
Besides influencing the student’s records, family engagement enhances collaborations
and cooperation between the families and schools hence encouraging the entire support for the
child with learning disabilities. If educators involve families in teaching and learning process, it
will be easier for them to get better understanding on how students should be taught since
families have special knowledge on how students can be taught in order to meet their needs as
students. In this way, it will be easy to make changes that will make education more effective for
students from different families so that they are not discriminated from getting quality education.
Identifying the purpose of the systematic literature review conducted by Mokhtar et al., it
can be noticed that the authors plan to explain why family engagement is crucial in special
education and offer information about how schools can successfully interact with families.
Understanding the specific concepts that the authors refer to in their works allows evaluating the
multifaceted processes related to the nature and characteristics of the family’s involvement and
the impact of the latter in the education of learners with special needs.
3.0 Methodology
3.1 identification of relevant literature in the literature review process.
In their study, Mokhtar et al. included a systematic technique for pulling up related
articles concerning family participation in teaching students with learning disabilities. Their
search strategy would comprise of an exhaustive search on electronic databases with concern to
the research questions and these would include among others; Eric, PsycINFO, Education
Source, Google Scholar. Specific terminologies which have to do with family involvement,
special education, as well as other words which are related to these concepts were used in this
method to guarantee exhaustive search. Also, the authors searched through your chosen journals,
references from the articles included in the search, and conference papers to search for additional
studies that were missed by electronic searches.
3.2 The selection criteria that are used when employing a systematic review.
The criteria used to identify the articles for the systematic literature review was well
defined by Mokhtar et al, and the following criteria were used to identify relevant studies for
analysis: Literature was reviewed based on its emphasis on the assessment on the involvement of
parents and families in the education of children with special needs, irrespective of the child’s
area of disability or age. To ensure the highest quality of research utilized in this literature
review, only articles that passed through the peer-review process and that were published in
English language in the last decade were considered eligible for inclusion in this literature
review. Educational studies that focused on family meanings, but did not point to family
involvement in the learning process or that were conducted in other fields of study rather than
special education were excluded from the review.
3.3 Method of Data Collection
After the identification of relevant studies, Mokhtar et al. have used systematic
procedures to deduce the appropriate information from the selected articles. After identifying the
relevant articles, data extraction was done through a format that included aspects such as study
purpose, sample description and demographic characteristics, methods employed, results
observed, and implications of the findings for practice. This approach helped maintain
consistency and reliability in the extraction of data regarding two key phenomena across
included studies, as well as enabling comparison and analysis of study findings.
3.4 Assessment of quality of papers under consideration
To evaluate the scientific quality of the identified samples, Mokhtar et al. used criteria
developed for evaluating the methodological quality and credibility of the studies within the field
of study on special education. Some of the tools that may have been used for the assessment of
quality include scoring checklists like Newcastle-Ottawa Scale that could have been applied to
observational studies or the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist that would have
been applied for systematic reviews to determine the risk and methodological influence of each
study. If the studies were more rigorous in terms of their methodological quality then they were
given more importance while integrating the findings while other sources which had some
serious limitations were considered for the analysis of the results and suggestions for further
research.
Mokhtar et al. made sure of the success of the literature search, as well as of the quality
of the literature selected for the evaluation of trends on family involvement in special education.
By using such a systematic approach, they strengthen the internal and external credibility of their
research findings that inform their systematic literature review on family engagement in
supporting the education of learners with special needs.
4.0 Dimension of Family Involvement.
4.1 parents’ support and advocacy for children with disabilities.
Both parent support and advocacy are considered core components of families’
participation in special education. This dimension covers the involvement of parents or a
guardian in offering care, academically or emotionally to study, students with disabilities.
Enforcement can also be in the form of helping the child and or Children with assignments,
encouragement accomplishments, and positive learning environment at home. Furthermore,
parents have the juridical obligations to fight for the child’s rights within the school building and
in the framework of the school community to be provided with proper educational services,
adjustments, and tools. Parental engagement and support for children with learning disabilities
may serve to enhance their academic success, as well as provide nurturing support to assist
students with overcoming obstacles.
4.2 families and teachers partnership
Parents and caregivers as well as teachers and other school staff have a professional
partnership in the education of the student with special needs. This area of parental engagement
requires the exchange of information and cooperation between families and schools based on
respect for one another and cooperation. Interactions may occur as frequently via phone, letter,
or face-to-face, consultative planning and sharing of strategies and meetings to design and
monitor IEP and other working consensuses involving academic or behavioral issues. Therefore,
by sharing their knowledge and views of the roles and responsibilities for students with special
needs at school, families and teachers can build on the strengths while addressing the needs of
students, which is important for creating an effective educational support system.
4.3 Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings.
Consistent with the state and federal laws concerning parents’ role in special education,
the involvement of families in special education entails conducting of IEP meetings. Developed
from the IDEA ’97, the IEP is a legal document that provides for educational and support goals
as per the child’s needs. The parents should participate in the IEP process to ensure that the plan
consists of desired changes, outlooks and difficulties experienced by the student. Ideally, parents
and legal guardians play a great role in the meetings that are held to set and plan IEPs and
somehow participate in the delivery of services as well as in planning on the next steps the child
should take once they are out of school. The opinion and opinion contribution of the client is
crucial in formulating a supportive IEP to foster positive education as well as functional
optimism of the student.
4.4 Family participation in decision-making processes
Another way through which families participate in the education of their children is by
contributing to the decision-making process concerning goals and service delivery in special
education. The family is an active partner in decision making for providing the child with
education services together with other teachers, managers and other related service providers
deciding on the possible educational remediation and supports for a child with learning
disabilities. This family engagement type includes ensuring the family participates in all
conversations about academic aspirations, methods of teaching, and other augments like speech
therapy or occupational therapy. Thus, families must be involved in as many decision making
processes as possible to be certain that their child’s educational program and service plan will be
conducive to the family’s ideas as well.
4.5 Resource and information gain
Another competency of family involvement for special education students is acquisition
of resources and information. At one time, families receiving special services need information
about their child’s disability, the services offered for students with such needs, legal rights and
services in connection with the Special Education Act, and related service providers, among
others. Also, they may need to enroll their child to professional development classes as well
receive family friendly training, workshops, and informational materials that may help them in
understanding more about their child’s needs and be able to fight for his/her rights. In providing
supports and services to children with special needs, education professionals and service
providers can, therefore, provide fair treatment and fairness in the distribution of resources and
information that families require to alter their child’s learning environment and education as
required.
4.6 Encouragement and Emotional support
This paper aims to educate on how families play a critical role in special education by
providing emotional support and encouragement to learners. Parenting a child with special needs
can be distressing and tiring for families, and this makes the need for families to be encouraged
coming from individuals with expertise in this area important. This type of family involvement
entails fostering a home atmosphere where the child enjoys, appreciated and where she/he is
cherished always. It may also include offering words of encouragement and making positive
comments to complement the child and boost their morale and belief in himself. This way
families can motivate and provide encouragement for the child thus ensuring the child is able to
attend the special school as well as develop and demonstrate employability skills that may enable
the child to overcome any challenges that may be encountered during his or her participation in
the special education.
4.7 Support to its implementation or advocacy for reform
Systemic advocacy, in this conception, is a more encompassing form of family
participation in special education that entails not only advocating for one’s own child but doing
so in a way with the goal of altering the educational system. The families that seem to struggle
with the system and face different obstacles that prevent their child with the learning disability
from getting proper education and services. Effecting advocacy, the families can engage with
teachers, policymakers, and the public and address the issues of prejudice, lack of resources and
instruments, and limited practice of integration in schools. This type of family engagement may
entail supporting organizations that aim at change in policies, fundraising, creating awareness for
needs of students with learning disabilities, and forming partnerships with other families or any
other stakeholders with mutual agendas.
Mokhtar et al in their systematic literature review offer a vast approach to examining
different facets of family engagement in special education. It is through involvement and
advocacy by parents on behalf of their children, joint working between families and teachers,
participation in IEP meetings and provision of information, involvement in decision-making,
access to relevant resources, encouragement, and support, as well as advocacy for organizational
change, that the authors provide numerous insights into what family involvement means and how
it may enrich the attainment of positive student outcomes where students have learning
disabilities.
5.0 Impact of Family Involvement
5.1 Academic achievement results for special needs students.
This review show a clear indication that family involvement in special education
influences the academic achievement of learners with special needs in some ways. Systematic
evidence is available showing that where families are fully involved in their children’s schooling,
any student has enhanced grade point averages, truancy, and graduation rates. Program
involvement results in increased academic performance in basic subjects, literal and numerical
comprehension, and advancement toward target goals within specific education plans known as
IEPs. In addition, there is an increase in students’ positive attitude towards learning and students’
motivation as influenced by their family involvement enhances high self-efficacy needed for the
students’ better performance in their studies.
5.2 Social and emotional develop of students with special needs
Apart from the academic aspect, another area regarding student’s special needs that is
benefited from the family involvement is the social and emotional aspect. This emphasizes the
continuous involvement of families in their child education since this results into improvement in
the social relationships, self-image, and success of students. Student engagement of families
assist the learners to get together with a solid support foundation to assist them in developing
proper interpersonal relationship with fellow children and other individuals in the society at
large. In addition, families contribute positively to bolstering the resilience and coping behaviors
among students so that they are able to confront challenges and acquire social and academic
emotional skills that are required for learning in school and later in life.
5.3 Positive changes in parents- school interactions
The nurturing of parent participation in special education enhances positive interaction
between parents and schools, building a strong parent-school partnership for children with
special needs. Where families are well involved in their child’s learning experiences, there are
the creation of high levels of trust, positive respect and shared responsibilities between the
parents and the teachers (Christenson & Sheridan, 2001). Communication plays an important
role in letting the necessary information and feedback flow between the families and schools
integrating the learners’ support. Also, when the families and schools join together to work
together it usually enhances the school climate by embracing diversity equity, and inclusion, this
make the school environment to embrace the students as they are.
6.0 Other Considerations about Family Engagement
6.1 Challenges to family engagement in special Education
There are several factors that can limit family engagement in the learning process of their
children throughout their young years. Some of these barriers include: insufficient information
and knowledge regarding available resources and assistance, linguistic, or cultural barriers,
transportation or child care, and perceived incompetence or overshadowed when dealing with
teachers or professionals. Moreover, one can consider structural prejudice that affects equal
distribution of education services and opportunities, discrimination, and lack of culturally diverse
families’ opportunities to participate in decision-making processes to restrain family engagement
if it regards special education.
6.2 Getting past the excuses and coming to a meeting:
These are some common barriers that can be used to role play by educators and school
personnel that may hinder family engagement, the following are some of the strategies that can
be used to close the gap for involving families. Some of these strategies may include ensuring
that families have easy access to information and resources that are culturally sensitive and
maybe in their preferred language, ensuring that they are able to communicate using other means
such as the use of sign language or video conferencing to enable them share their concerns
easily, providing families a platform where they can share their experiences and swap stories
with other families. Moreover, to lessen cultural conflicts and to ensure family-professor
partnership, educators can utilize the following approaches:
Strengths-Based Approach, which acknowledges the worth of family involvement
in school activities,
(Educational Family Engagement Approach, which embraces the participation of
families in decision making in all school related affairs, and
Supportive Approach, which encourages families consistently and makes them
feel more involved in their child schooling.
6.3 Comparative issues in school-family relations
Understanding cultural factors are important for supporting a effective relationships
between families of students with special needs and schools. It is essential to make cross-cultural
sensitivity and appreciation in working with families as a fundamental component to assessing,
engage and to embrace partnership (Harry & Klingner, 2007). Teachers should be effective in
trying to ensure that children respect cultural diversities within and outside the classroom, as
well as respect other children’s languages and cultures. Furthermore, the educators stand to gain
from undertaking any other cultural competence training as well as professional development in
cultural competence that would improve on the understanding of cultural differences and
increase their capacity when interacting with the families. When the schools support cultural
diversity and educators learn to be culturally responsive, all families of students are welcomed,
respected and encouraged to engage in the process of educating their child.
Mokhtar et al’s systematic literature review helps to elucidate the enumeration of the
factors contributing to family involvement in special education as well as the comprehensive
nature of the effects of family involvement on student outcomes. In this regard, the authors’
discussion of the challenges to family engagement, ways to enhance it, and cultural aspects
required to enrich family-school partnership gives insights into best practices that can support
collaboration between the family and the school in addressing students’ special need.
7.0 Remarks on Extant Literature and Directions for further research
Existing literature has contributed to the understanding of a range of specifics related to
the analysis of family involvement in special education though several gaps remain to be filled
in. An area of avenue for future research is the possible expanded and comparative investigation
of the difference and efficacy of various forms of family engagements on learner achievements.
For instance research questions could include: how various forms of parents’ support and
advocacy operate, cultural and contextual factors affecting home-school relationships,
characteristics, and long-term prospective of families’ involvement on student’s academic and
post-secondary achievements. Moreover, there is a need for more investigation into the families’
experience and views on the situation, particularly from non-English-speaking families, low-
income families, and families from culturally and linguistically diverse environments to
incorporate worthy and fair approaches to special education all inclusive.
Prior research concerning the FFI and special education may bear several methodological
characteristics which require attention. Common weaknesses are the limited number of
participants, no control group or baseline assessment, use of questionnaires instead of established
diagnostic tools, and the use of cross-sectional research designs, which hamper causal
conclusions. Furthermore, certain research areas may be equally limited with regard to their
geographic locations, participant samples, and disability types, which may reduce
generalizability.
In this regard, the conduct of future research should aim at overcoming these
methodological shortcomings using appropriate designs, samples, and methods that would not
only increase the internal validity of the findings but also incorporate the external validity of the
findings. These gaps and inherent methodological shortcomings give significant considerations
to future research endeavors in the field of family participation in special schooling. Researchers
should focus on studies that respond to these gaps using methodologically sound investigations
that follow an array of different samples, focus, and methods to examine the family-school
partnership. There are also research gaps that consider how effective specific interventions in
engaging families in special education are, how households’ connections to schools can be
strengthened, and whether there are studies on the effects of policy and structural reforms on
family involvement and student progress.
8.0 Recommendations for Practice
Some approaches that teachers and other school staff can use in order to improve family
engagement in learning for children with disability include: Some common strategies for
engaging families may include; having open channels of communication, providing culturally
appropriate information and materials, collaborative decision-making with parents and carers and
promoting the positive recognition of diverse cultural population within the school environment.
Further, technology can use to enhance communication with the families and provide the parents
education sessions and a support group option and involve them in the learning process and other
school functions. With the right attitude towards the schools involvement of families it is easy to
help students in special needs schools gain positive results towards the students concerns.
Continuing education and training which are prerequisite for strengthening the
competence of educators and all school staff with a focus on sufficient and effective
communication and cooperation with families of children with special educational needs. Such
training programs may involve understanding multicultural diversity and family focused care,
communications skills and team management skills, and conflict management skills.
Furthermore, teachers can apply the improvements in special education law and policies like idea
for parents and their children, and other legislations useful for their career. The third area of
improvement through the provision of professional development is that schools can only support
their educators to foster positive relationships with families so as to embrace learners with
special needs in their schools.
The following are enumerated local, state, and federal policies for the provision of
support and encouragement of family-school partnership in special education. These can include
passing policies that make family involvement as an essential aspect of the special education
practice, providing the necessary resources and funds for family engagement activities vested in
the school, and instituting ways of measuring the successes of the family engagement practices.
It is possible for legislators to pass laws that safeguard rights of family members of
students with disabilities, guarantee quality services and fair share of education for such students,
and foster equality in the process of special education. In order to enhance stability for both
families and schools, the politics of a country can support policies for families and children with
special needs to be as sound as those for typical students.
9.0 Conclusion
Overall, it is apparent that family engagement is a critical factor for the learning and
educational welfare of the students with special needs. The good practice of family engagement
in education has been well supported through research thus showing the benefits of the family
engagement on academic achievement, socio-emotional development and the family- school
interface. Nonetheless, there are shortcomings and methodological weaknesses in prior
knowledge that call for more searches and creations in the current studies.
Employing family engagement for purposes of creating positive outcomes and nurturing
students with learning difficulties and their families is pivotal as well as establishing the right
and favorable learning atmosphere. Families may be said to afford educators the kind of
important information that they require in offering specific treatment which may be useful to
students and in a way that they may be able to improve their learning and social detective
efficiently.
The proposed multiplication of the existing policy therefore requires a more spirited
collaboration between families and schools in the upbringing of children with learning
impairments. To increase the participation of families in the delivery of education for their
children, we can capitalize on the professional development of education care givers, policies to
support equity and inclusion, thereby improving the equality of the students and providing them
with all necessary motivation that will enable the students to perform to the best of their abilities.
In line with their systematic literature review, Mokhtar et al. have provided a great deal
of information on the identification of the role of family involvement in special education
interventions and the specialties and recommendations for practice of family-school partnership.
When you heed this call to action and attend more to the family, investment in the family special
education will help to give students with special needs a promising future, as education systems
undergo change to be more friendly to students with special needs.
