Doing Things-Out-Of-Love: Rearing Children with Special Needs from the Lens of their Parents

Owing to the importance of parents as partners of teachers in Special Education (SPED) institutions, various scientific explorations were conducted to understand the parents` experiences in dealing with their children with special needs. Among these, there is a dearth of studies that unveiled the experiences of parents in the upland municipalities of the Philippines towards the development of responsive interventions tailored to the parents` needs. This prompted the investigation in Rosario Elementary School - Special Education Center, Cervantes District to determine the parents` challenges in dealing with their children with special needs and their coping as insights in the development of a practical intervention. This endeavor utilized the Qualitative Method with Case Study as its design. It considered total enumeration to comprehensively depict the picture of the parents` experiences. Using an interview protocol, data were gathered and analyzed thematically. After the analyses of the transcripts, the study revealed that parents face emotional stress, financial constraints, communication obstacles, and a lack of methods to employ for their children`s acquisition of academic skills and basic life skills. They cope by being optimistic, empathetic, resourceful, and hardworking. A SPED – Based Parental Convergence Program was developed tailored to the findings. Through parents` kind hearts, they thrive every day despite the challenges they encounter. However, they need to be armed with various supports from a pool of experts, concerned authorities, and their fellow parents for them to be more productive. Further, studies may be conducted to validate the study`s findings.