Parents' experiences of an intervention on parent support for children with colour vision deficiency

Abstract

Despite a fairly high prevalence, Colour Vision Deficiency (CVD) is not currently deemed a visual impairment in South Africa, resulting in limited formal guidelines on how to support children with CVD – both at home and in the school context. It is evident that parents may not feel sufficiently equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to optimally support their children with CVD. Research in the field of CVD therefore requires ongoing attention, specifically in South Africa, where only a few studies have been undertaken. This study forms part of a broader research project that focuses on the effect of holistic support provision to children with CVD within the home and school contexts. As part of the broader project, I co-developed and implemented a short-term parent guidance intervention in support of children with CVD. Thereafter, I determined the experiences of the parents who had taken part in the intervention. My study builds on that of another MEd student who explored the participating parents’ existing support practices as well as their needs and expectations for further guidance on how to better support their children with CVD. In undertaking my research, I was guided by Bronfenbrenner’s (1976) bioecological model of development as a theoretical framework, utilised interpretivism as meta-theory and followed a qualitative methodological approach. I implemented a descriptive case study design and relied on a combination of convenience and purposeful sampling in selecting the case to focus on and four parents to participate. Data was generated and documented by means of four semi-structured interviews and observation, supported by audio-visual recordings, field notes and a reflective journal. Following inductive thematic analysis, I identified four themes and related sub-themes. The themes focus on the value of the intervention for parents, the perceived value of the intervention for the participants’ children with CVD, the potential value of the intervention for others, and the suitability of the format and content of the intervention. The findings of this study indicate the value of a parent guidance intervention on CVD, not only for parents, but also for their children, the teachers of their children, and even the broader society, in terms of a raised awareness of the needs of these children. More specifically, the parents benefited by gaining new knowledge and skills to better support their children with the challenges they face due to CVD. The findings further indicate that such a parent guidance intervention can be offered via a social media platform such as WhatsApp, and that the content can take different forms when distributing messages, such as that of informative written messages and infographics which can be supplemented by messages taking the form of videos or quotations. In conclusion, the parent guidance intervention that was implemented empowered the participating parents to fulfil their supportive role more effectively with their children with CVD. The parent participants furthermore shared their newly gained knowledge with others such as teachers, in support of their children's well-being.