FAMILY INTERVIEW The Parent of a Child with an Exceptionality Wichita State University Spring 2021 CI 401 XXXXXXXX 1 Introduction As an educator, learning about our students and their lives is imperative to our jobs. Every child comes from a different background, and every child and every background are unique. Every family is different, and in order to fully understand the students in our care, we need to also understand their families, (Friend and Cook, 2017, p. 267). One type of student that I need a deeper understanding of is a student who has an identified exceptionality. A student with an exceptionality is any student who has a disability or giftedness that requires additional services in an educational setting. More specifically, a disability could be characterized as limitations imposed on an individual including, but not limited to, physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional, or learning limitations. In order to learn more about the family life of a child with an exceptionality, I interviewed the mother of a student who is developmentally delayed. Methods The child who I was interested in learning more about is a kindergarten student at Gammon Elementary School in Wichita, KS. I was able to sit in on the student’s annual Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting, which was attended by the mother via Zoom. After which, I was able to conduct my interview with her about her son. I met with her virtually on March 16, 2021 for about thirty minutes. Gammon’s special education teacher joined the 2 meeting as well to help facilitate the conversation. I first started by acquiring some background information about the student’s mother and their family. She is a single mother, the father is, at the mother’s insistence, completely out of the picture. She has two children, a daughter who is in 2nd grade, and a son, who is the kindergartener and the focus of the interview. She is 28 years old and has lived in Wichita all her life. She works for Phoenix Home Care and Hospice and is in the process of pursuing her nursing degree and medication aid certificate at WSU Tech. They are a low-income, African American family, and the mother was very shy during her IEP meeting and during the interview. I was told that this is common for her and her demeanor. Having the special education teacher present for our meeting likely made the mother feel more comfortable, considering that they have an established relationship. Prior to the interview, the special education teacher approached the mother on my behalf and gave her the consent form to participate in the process. The special education teacher also went through the list of potential questions that I had given her, and she picked out the questions that she thought would be appropriate to ask, given the mother’s background and personality. The interview went as follows: Question: What are some ...

1. FAMILY INTERVIEW
The Parent of a Child with an Exceptionality
Wichita State University
Spring 2021
CI 401
XXXXXXXX
1
Introduction
As an educator, learning about our students and their lives is
imperative to our jobs.
Every child comes from a different background, and every child
and every background are
unique. Every family is different, and in order to fully
understand the students in our care, we
need to also understand their families, (Friend and Cook, 2017,
p. 267). One type of student

2. that I need a deeper understanding of is a student who has an
identified exceptionality. A
student with an exceptionality is any student who has a
disability or giftedness that requires
additional services in an educational setting. More
specifically, a disability could be
characterized as limitations imposed on an individual including,
but not limited to, physical,
cognitive, sensory, emotional, or learning limitations. In order
to learn more about the family
life of a child with an exceptionality, I interviewed the mother
of a student who is
developmentally delayed.
Methods
The child who I was interested in learning more about is a
kindergarten student at
Gammon Elementary School in Wichita, KS. I was able to sit in
on the student’s annual
Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting, which was
attended by the mother via Zoom.
After which, I was able to conduct my interview with her about
her son. I met with her virtually

3. on March 16, 2021 for about thirty minutes. Gammon’s special
education teacher joined the
2
meeting as well to help facilitate the conversation. I first
started by acquiring some background
information about the student’s mother and their family.
She is a single mother, the father is, at the mother’s insistence,
completely out of the
picture. She has two children, a daughter who is in 2nd grade,
and a son, who is the
kindergartener and the focus of the interview. She is 28 years
old and has lived in Wichita all
her life. She works for Phoenix Home Care and Hospice and is
in the process of pursuing her
nursing degree and medication aid certificate at WSU Tech.
They are a low-income, African
American family, and the mother was very shy during her IEP
meeting and during the interview.
I was told that this is common for her and her demeanor.
Having the special education teacher
present for our meeting likely made the mother feel more
comfortable, considering that they

4. have an established relationship. Prior to the interview, the
special education teacher
approached the mother on my behalf and gave her the consent
form to participate in the
process. The special education teacher also went through the
list of potential questions that I
had given her, and she picked out the questions that she thought
would be appropriate to ask,
given the mother’s background and personality. The interview
went as follows:
Question: What are some of the major strengths for your family
as a whole?
Answer: Communication. I talk to my kids about school and
about family. We spend a lot of
time together and talk as a family. We like to go to the zoo,
water parks, Dave and Busters,
Chuck E Cheese, and to the park to spend time together.
Q: When the family faces a challenge, how do you cope with
those difficulties?
3

5. A: I usually talk about things with my mom. She spends a lot of
time with us on the weekends.
Q: What have been some school, or other setting, experiences in
the past that have particularly
helped your child to feel good about himself?
A: The school helps a lot. He [my son] really likes the rewards
at school when he does a good
job. He likes getting candy or a toy, or a certificate to take
home.
Q: What types of communication occur with your child’s
school? Are you satisfied with the
arrangement?
A: Yes, I think it’s a good arrangement. The school usually
calls or sends home a letter or email.
I feel like I can contact them at any time, but usually they reach
out to me.
Q: What has made you feel most empowered?
A: His learning and improvements in his speech. I can see a
difference.
Q: What help and/or other supports do you feel your family

6. needs?
A: None right now. My mom helps a lot with the kids, so I feel
like we are doing alright.
The mother didn’t necessarily seem uncomfortable, but she also
didn’t seem to be very
eager to share. She didn’t seem to be withholding any
information, but still, she gave short
concise answers. Upon further prompting, she gave simple one-
word answers or made
4
agreeable sounds, such as “Mmhmm.” The special education
teacher who was present
informed me that this was fairly common for their interactions.
Results
Although the answers she gave were brief, I did learn about the
life of another family,
one who is drastically different from my own. Surprisingly, it’s
not being a single mother, or
having two kids, one with exceptionalities, or being a low -

7. income family that struck me the
most about the differences between my family and theirs. The
most striking thing for me was
what she said about her mother being there to help her. My
family all lives far away, in New
York or Washington, and I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous
when she told me about her
mom coming on the weekends and helping her when she was
going through a tough time. My
family is always there for me over the phone, but we’re missing
the physical closeness. I value
family life and family engagement with students so much and I
think that this mother having
such a close relationship with her children makes a huge
difference in their lives at home and at
school. Studies have shown that family involvement in schools,
and even just helping with
homework at home, increases students’ academic outcomes!
(Friend and Cook, 2017). These
are the types of relationships I want to foster for my students in
my own classroom. I want to
encourage parent/guardian involvement as much as possible and
to offer classroom events that
are built around family participation. Parents/guardians are

8. always welcome in my class and I
sincerely look forward to building relationships with my
students’ families.
5
Family can be looked at through multiple lenses. One definition
of a family is “two or
more people who regard themselves as a family and who share
some of the functions that
families typically perform. These people may or may not be
related by blood or marriage and
may or may not usually live together.” (Friend and Cook, 2017,
p. 266). In the case of this
student, his family consists of himself, his older sister, his
mom, and his grandmother. The
grandmother doesn’t live with him, but she is around enough
and involved enough that I would
classify her as a member of his immediate family. Regardless,
it is not my place to decide which
members of a student’s given or chosen family actually
constitutes a family. If a child says,
“These people are my family,” then that is their prerogative to
do so, and my responsibility to

9. respect that.
Although this particular mother didn’t seem to have any obvious
conflicts in
communicating with her children’s school, there still are several
factors that could be
potentially problematic. One of these factors is culture. As
aforementioned, this family is a
low-income African American family, and although a decent
percentage of the student body at
Gammon is also Black (at least 40%), only a very small portion
of the staff there are Black. The
overall cultural responsiveness at this school seems to be
relatively well-developed as a whole,
but I can’t say as to what the school does on an individual level
for students and their families
to make them feel that the school is culturally aware. It i s
possible that the mother of this
student feels intimidated in her IEP meetings by being the only
African American person
present. In an effort to alleviate any possible feelings of
cultural bias, perceived or otherwise, it
is important for schools to focus attention on the family
themselves, eliminating any implicit

10. bias that may be present. It’s also important for schools to
recognize the uniqueness of each
6
family unit; again, no two families are the same. It is also
extremely important for schools to
view families as partners in the education system. Families
need to feel included; they need to
feel the equity that they have in the partnership with their
children’s schools. These
suggestions, among many others, are imperative for the
collaboration between schools and
families, (Friend and Cook, 2017, p. 277).
It is also the responsibility of the schools to recognize the
specific needs of families with
a child with a disability, like the one that participated in this
project. Even though kids spend
more of their waking hours in school than they do at home in
many cases, parents and
guardians are still the experts on their children, and it is crucial
to treat them as such. Having a
child with a disability can cause little or no strain on a family
and their daily lives, or it cause

11. severe strain and penetrate every aspect of a family’s life. As
an educator, it is important to
realize that every family copes with adversity in different ways,
and that I will likely never fully
realize what it is like to be in that position. It is also crucial to
recognize that students with
disabilities will likely be much more dependent upon their
parents than their peers without
disabilities. Dependency for food, clothing, shelter, and love
are things that most children have
in common, but for students who have disabilities, they may
also be dependent upon their
caregivers for much more. Physically moving around their
homes is one example of further
dependency. Social and emotional experiences may be another;
depending on the nature of
the disability, the only significant social emotional interactions
the child has may be with his or
her family. Therefore, it is vital to recognize the unique
challenges of a family with a student
who has a disability, but it is absolutely essential not to view
them as victims, to patronize
them, or to treat them with pity. Treat them with respect and
empathy, just as you would treat

12. 7
a family who does not have a child with a disability, but always
be cognizant of the fact that
they have unique emotional, social, physical, and financial
needs, (Friend and Cook, 2017, p.
278).
Conclusion
During my time interviewing the mother of a kindergartener
who is developmentally
delayed, I got the opportunity to get an inside view of the life of
a family with a child who has
an exceptionality. The biggest thing that I have learned from
interacting with this parent, is
that her son’s needs do not define her or their family. As a
single mother of two young
children, she has a certain dependency upon the school,
Gammon Elementary, to inform and
include her in all aspects relating to her children. What I have
gathered from this particular

13. relationship is that the collaboration between the school and the
parent seems to stem largely
from the parent’s trust that the school is doing all they can for
her son and his individualized
care and educational needs. The mother is a willing participant,
but due to the restrictions of
daily life, being a single parent, working, and attending WSU
Tech, her level of involvement in
her son’s education is less involved than that of a parent who
has fewer constraints. However,
it was clear to me that she was indeed invested in what the
school had to say and that she
trusts their judgement regarding her son’s well-being. The most
significant thing I have learned
about collaboration between schools and families is that
collaboration will look different for
every family. As previously established, every family is
unique, so it makes perfect sense that
every collaboration between families and schools should
subsequently be unique as well.
8
References

14. Friend, M., & Cook, L. (2017). Interactions: Collaboration
Skills for School Professionals (8th ed.).
Pearson.