A Study of Lived Experiences of Parents of Children with Down Syndrome on Activities of Daily Living

Abstract

Activities of Daily Living (ADL) are often overlooked especially
when children are in their beginning years of development. This
especially can be a challenge for parents of children with Down
syndrome due to the varying levels of progress of their child’s
development in the areas of: a) socio-emotional, b) communication, c) motor, d) cognitive and e) self-help skills. Thus, Vygotsky’s
Sociocultural Theory was applied to theoretically study the lived
experiences of parents of children with Down syndrome on
Activities of Daily Living (ADL). The objectives of the study are: a)
to explore how parents teach Activities of Daily Living to their
children with Down syndrome, b) to determine how parents
perceive the importance of Activities of Daily Living for their
children, and c) to identify the challenges parents faced in teaching
their children with Down syndrome on Activities of Daily Living. A
qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews and journals
were adopted and 3 parents participated in this study. For the first
research question on how parents teach their children ADL, two
themes emerged from the findings; one, modeling via the More
Knowledgeable Other (MKO), two, encouragement using tools or
signs. For the second research question on how parents perceive the importance of ADL, one key theme manifested: important in
promoting independence. Finally, for the third research question on
the challenges parents face in teaching their children ADL, two
major themes were identified; first, behavioral challenges of
children and second, parent’s emotions. Future researchers may
conduct a study by looking at both parents’ perspectives to obtain a
more rich and in-depth study on their child’s ADL.