Parental Competencies of Mothers of Visually Impaired Children Receiving Early Development Support

Introduction: Parental competencies are a certain acquired disposition of parents that provides them with the opportunity to choose such strategies that will aid their child’s development, increase the child's knowledge, autonomy and self-regulating processes. The arrival of a visually impaired child often changes the functioning of the entire family, but it also affects the parents' ways of acting, their control mechanisms and their sense of self-efficacy. Their internal and external resources as well as their parental competencies will determine the effectiveness of therapies in the field of early development support. Research Aim: The aim of the study was to determine the level of parental competencies of mothers of children receiving developmental support, in this case children with impaired vision. Research Method: The study included a group of 37 mothers of children with visual disabilities receiving early development support. The Parental Competencies Test (Test Kompetencji Rodzicielskich, TKR) by Matczak and Jaworowska (2017) was used to assess the level of parental competencies. In addition, a questionnaire for parents. Results: The study showed that the surveyed mothers with children with visual disabilities are characterised by an average level of granting freedom to their children, they set realistic requirements, teach and explain the behaviours. They are also characterised by an average level of commitment, i.e. they are interested in their child, show positive feelings and acceptance of the child’s behaviour, are supportive and ready to provide the necessary help. Within the range of scales indicating the occurrence of mistakes, it can be stated that in the scales of rigour, permissiveness, overprotectiveness and helplessness, the examined mothers achieved average results. Conclusions: Although the presented results indicate a tendency for the surveyed mothers to educate themselves, it would certainly be necessary to consider the creation of a support network, prevention programmes and training cycles, thanks to which these mothers would have the opportunity to improve their parenting competencies and to learn how to eliminate their mistakes.