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Study of Psychological characteristics and attitude of the parents of visually impaired children
Focus On Kashmir Valley.
Submitted for
The partial-fulfillment of the Requirement for the award of
Post Graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation Psychology.
BY
Fouzia Nazki
Under the supervision
Of
Dr. Meer Zaffar Iqbal
Assistant Professor & Head
Department of Rehabilitation Psychology.
Composite Regional Centre
Ministry of Social justice and Empowerment.
Government of India, Bemina Srinagar.
2009
CERTIFICATE
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Certified that the Project entitled Study of Psychological characteristics and attitude of the parents of
visually impaired children Focus On Kashmir Valley. which is being submitted by Ms Fouzia Nazki
for the partial fulfillment of the Post graduate Diploma in Rehabilitation Psychology, is the original
work under my guidance and Supervision and has not been submitted/published any where else for any
purpose.
Dr. Reyaz A Untoo Dr. Meer Zafar Iqbal
Director Sr. Assistant Professor Clinical Psychology
Composite Regional Centre Composite Regional Centre
For persons with Disabilities For persons with Disabilities
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment
Govt. of India, Bemina, Srinagar Govt. of India, Bemina, Srinagar
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Contents
S.No Chapter Page No
1. Introduction
2. Review of Literature
3. Methodology
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. Conclusion & Suggestion
7. Reference
8. Appendix
ACKNOWLEGEMENT
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My all gratitudes to Dr. Meer Zaffar Iqbal, Head, Department of Rehabilitation Psychology, Composite
Regional Centre, For persons with Disabilities Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment Govt. of India,
Bemina, For persons with Disabilities Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment Govt. of India, Bemina,
Srinagar, Who supervised my work with keen interest and helped me by giving detailed but critical
comments on the manuscript. His cooperation was invaluable and I humbly acknowledge his able
guidance.
I wish to thank Dr. Reyaz A. Untoo, Professor and Director Composite Regional Centre for
persons with Disabilities Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment Govt. of India, Bemina, Srinagar For
providing me all the necessary facilities in the department. I would always be indebted to him for his
generous support and encouragement.
I would also like to thank Ms Nazia & Ms Aaliya for their invaluable comments and timelysuggestions.
I also desire to convey my heartfelt gratitude to Library staff and also non-teaching staff of our
department for rendering me support throughout my project work.
Last but not the least, an everlasting source of inspiration came from my parents who always kept
my morale up. My sisters and my friends (especially Ms Shazia)are also worthy of special thanks for
providing technical and moral support
FOUZIA NAZKI
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CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
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Introduction
In human beings, the extend of an individuals continuing Physical, Emotional, Mental and Social ability
to cope with his Environment. Actually, there is a wide variable area between Health and Disease. e.g. it
is Psychologically normal for an individual, 15-20 minutes after eating a meal, to have high blood sugar
contents, but, if however, this high level persists more than two hours__ this condition is abnormal and
may indicate Disease. Thus it can be seen that unlike disease, which is frequently recognizable, tangible
and rather easily defined. Health is somewhat nebulous condition and difficult to define. Moreover
physical condition and health are not synonymous terms. Like color blind skater, blind pianist, both
have good physical health but physical condition is not normal. A person may still be considered
unhealthy if his mental state as measured by his behaviour is deemed unsound.
CONCEPT OF DISEASE, IMPAIRMENT, HANDICAP, DISABILITY
Something abnormal occurs within an individual. This may be Present at birth or acquired later. Chain of
casual of casual circumstances, the Etiology brings a change in the structure of functioning of body
Pathology these Pathological changes may not become evident. When evident, they are described as
Manifestation. Sickness interferes with individuals ability to Discharge those functions and obligations
that are expected of him. When the Pathological State is exteriorized then most of individual become
aware of manifestation usually referred to as Clinical disease Not frequently, symptoms may develop
that can not be currently linked to underlying disease process, something exteriorized even if cant be
accounted for. In contrast some deviation is identified of which the patient is unaware. Such Pathology
without symptoms constitutes sub clinical disease which is encountered when screening programmes are
extended. So someone else draws attention towards disease manifestation.
HIS ILLNESS HERLANDS THE RECOGNITION OF IMPAIRMENT
The performance or behavior of individual may be altered as result of awareness either
consequentially or cognitively common activities may become restricted and in this way experience is
objectified the pattering of illness manifested as behavior by individual in response to the expectations
other have of him. These experiences represent disabilities. This awareness or altered behavior places the
individual at disadvantage relative to other, thus socializing the experience. These experiences represent
handicap.
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IMPAIRMENT
In the context of health experience, impairment is any loss or abnormality of psychological,
physiological or anatomical or function.
Impairment represents deviation neither from some nor in individuals bio-medical status. Impairment is
characterized by loses or abnormalities that may be temporary or permanent and it include existence or
occurrence of an anomaly, defect or loss in the limb organ tissue or structure of body or defect in mental
functions. e.g. Blindness is visual impairment or less functioning of brain in a child (cognitively) is an
intellectual impairment.
Term of impairment should not be regarded that a person is sick. Individual exposed to or
harboring an extraneous etiological agent of disease is not impairment. Impairment only ensures whenagent has initiated a reaction by body.
DISABILITY
In context of health experience, a disability is any restriction or lack (resulting from impairment)
of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for human beings. In
providing link between impairment and handicap, it is fairly easy for concept of disability to be vague,
variable and arbitrary
Impairment is concerned with individual function of parts of body as such. It tends to be somewhat
idealistic notion. Disability on other hand is concerned with compound or integrated activity respected of
person or of body as a whole. In other words disability takes from as individual becomes aware of changes
in his identity customary to expectations. In physical, psychological, and social terms and it is unrealistic
to concept a neat separation between medical and social aspects of activity.
HANDICAP
Handicap is a Disadvantage for the given individual resulting from impairment or a Disability that
limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal (depending upon age, sex and social and cultural
factors) for that individual. Handicap is characterized by Discordance between the individual performance
or status and expectation of particular group of which he is member. It is thus Social Phenomenon
representing the social and environmental consequences for the individual.
INTEGRATION OF CONCEPTS
Ideas can be linked together
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Disease or Disorder Impairment Disability Handicap
(intrinsic situation) (exteriorized) (Objectified) (Socialized)
Disability is the expression of physical or mental limitation in Social context. The gap between persons
capabilities and demand of the environment:-
MODEL OF DISABILITY
RISK FACTORS
Events e.g falls, Infections
The Disabling Process
The model of Disability showing the interaction of the Disabling process, quality of life and risk factors.
Three types of risk factors are included biological (RH type) environmental (e.g. lead paint): Physical
Environment access to care (Social/Environment) and life style and behavior (e.g. tobacco consumption).
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Biological
Life style
and
Behaviour
Environmenta
l
(Social &
Physical )
Pathology ImpairmentFunctional
LimitationDisability
Quality
of Life
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Bidirectional arrows indicated the potential for feedback. The Potential for additional risk factors to
affect the progression toward Disability is shown between the stages of the model. These additional risk
factors might include, depending on the state of the model, diagnosis, treatment, therapy, adequacy of
Rehabilitation, age of onset, financial, resources, expectations, and environmental barriers.
CATAGORIES OF DISABILITY
Depending upon its nature, on deficiency it can be categorized into various types such as:-
Locomotors, Speech, Hearing, (Mental Retardation, Mental illness, Autism) other emotional disorder
specific learning Disabilities, Cerebral Palsy, and some other types depending on the diseases which
cause these, such as Cancer, Leprosy, heart disease .multiple sclerosis etc these disabilities can be further
categorized as Mild, Moderate, Severe and Profound, depending on their Severity.
LOCO MOTOR IMPAIRMENT
Loco Motor disability means a persons inability to execute distinctive activities associated with
moving, both themselves and objects, from place to place, and such inability resulting from affliction of
bones, joints, muscles or nerves. Nearly all cases of loco-motor disability which accounts for nearly 61%
of the physical disability in the country as per the 1991 NSSO survey reports requires one or more of the
physical restorative services. Inmost of the cases of polio and some of the cases of leprosy, accidents and
some other problems which together would constitute nearly 50% of the locomotor disability, surgical
intervention would be needed. Surgical correction followed by physiotherapy, occupational therapy and
rehabilitation aids and appliances help overcome the functional limitations imposed by orthopedic
disability. Surgical restoration is achieved by operating on muscles, tendons, joints, and bones so as to
relieve contractures, to enable a person to flex his limits, to reshape the affected bones, to improve the
functioning of muscles or joints, or ot enable insertion or fitment of an artificial devices.
HEARING IMPAIRMENT
The ear is one of the most delicate parts of the body and can easily be damage.
The outer ear which is the part, we can see and which leads to the ear canal going down to the eardrum
that con not be seen easily.
The middle ear, which is the other side of the eardrum. It contains a little bonus linked together which
move as a unit along wit5h the eardrum. The eardrum vibrates, when the sound waves press on it, and the
3-bone unit passes on these vibrations to the adjoining inner ear.
The inner ear is a very complicated organ. It receives and sorts out all the vibrations as different sounds,
so that the brain, through the auditory nerves and the auditory pathway can receive them and after
processing, interpret them.
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Damage to any of these parts including the auditory area in the brain itself causes impairment which leads
to deafness.
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE IMPIARMENT
Speech and language are considered to be impaired when they are so different from speech and
language of other people that they catch attention and interfere with communication that is speech. Speech
and language are defective when they are difficult to understand and are very unpleasant. In order to be
labeled as abnormal speaker speech and language should show errors in any one of the following from
areas:-
Language Disorder: Person having difficulties in speech and in sound production.
Articulation Disorder: Person having difficulties in speech and in sound production.
Voice Disorder: Person having abnormality in Pitch loudness and quality of the voice.Fluency Disorder: Person having problems in smooth flow of speech utterances.
MENTAL RETARDATION
A condition of arrested or incomplete development of the mind, which is especially characterized
by impairment of skills manifested during the developmental period, skills which contribute to the over
all level of intelligence, i.e. cognitive, language, motor, and social abilities. Retardation can occur with or
without any other mental or physical condition.
Degrees of mental retardation are conventionally estimated by standardized intelligence tests.
These can be supplemented by scales assessing social adaptation in a given environment. These measures
provide an approximate indication of the degrees of mental retardation the diagnosis will also depend on
the overall assessment of intellectual functioning by a skilled diagnostician.
Intellectual abilities and social adaptation may change over time, and however poor, may improve
as a result of training and rehabilitation Diagnosis should be based on the current levels of functioning.
Approximate 1 Q range of 50 to 69 (in adults mental age from 9 to under12 years). Likely to
result in some learning difficulties in school. Many adults years Likely to result in some learning
difficulties in school. Many adults will be able to work and maintain good social relationship and
contribute to society.
Approximate IQ range of 35 to 49 (in adults, mental age from 6 to under9 years) likely to result in
marked developmental delays in childhood but most can learn to develop some degrees of support to live
and work in the community.
Approximate IQ range of 20 to 34 (in adults, mental age from 3 to under6 years) likely to result in
continuous need of support.
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IQ under 20 (in adults, mental age below 3 years) results in severe limitation in self care,
continuance, communication and mobility
Mental Retardation refers to substantial limitations present functioning. It is characterized by
significantly sub average intellectual functioning, hustling concurrently with related limitations in two or
more of the following applicable adaptive skills areas; communications, self carte, home living, social
skills community use, self direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure, and work. Mental
Retardation manifests before age 18.
Mental Retardation is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual
functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills, this
disability originates before age 18.
The 2002 system involves the following five dimensions:Dimension I Intellectual abilities
Dimension II Adaptive Behavior (conceptual, social, practical skills)
Dimension III Participation interactions, social Roles.
Dimension IV Health (Physical health, mental health, etiology)
Dimension V Context (environments, culture)
The emerging consensus of analysis of vacant work in the field regarding the definition of mental
retardation is as follows:-
Mental Retardation is an intellectual disability mirrored by significant limitations in everyday
functioning that are present early in life and before age 18. There are myths about mental Retardation.
Quite after a Mentally Retarded child is mistaken for a mentally ill child. There is a very significant
difference between the two. The Mentally Retarded child has reduced intelligence and therefore his
learning capacity is impaired. On the other hand a child who is mentally ill usually has emotional
disorders which manifest itself in unusual or strange behavior. Thus there is a no comparison between the
two conditions. Mental retardation, mental deficiency mental sub normality and mental handicap are the
terms used to refer to the same condition. The terms used in the past such as dementia, idiocy, feeble
minded, moron, imbecile and oligophrenia are now obsolete.
MENTAL Illness
Mental illness occurs when a state of physical mental, social and spiritual well being is disturbed.
In illness the individual shows symptoms like depression, feeling of anxiety, physical complaint without
any organic cause and a sudden change in behavior or mood.
Recognition of Mental Illness.
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1. Disturbances of Mental functions like thinking of emotion, intelligence, memory, attention,
perception etc.
2. Violent, assumptive, destructive, abusive, suicidal or homicidal behavior
3. Anxiety, tension, irritability, poverty of concentrations diminished work efficiently, irrational
fears, (Phobias), unwanted ideas (Obsession) and repetitive meaningless activities.
4. Somatic symptoms like headache body ache, anoxia, constipation, diarrhea, sleeplessness,
palpitation and breathlessness at rest without organic cause.
5. Somatic syndromes produced by emotional disturbances which involve autonomic nervous system
sympathetic as well as Para Sympathetic.
6. Anti social behavior likes criminality, sexual perversions, addition of drugs and alcohol
7. Disorder of Cerebral function, due to Emotional Disturbance.
LEARNING DISABILITY
Learning disability may usually be caused by minimum brain damage. There are many kinds of
learning difficulties, the major ones include;
Dyslexia__ (Problem in reading) thus a condition in which a child while reading may omit
substitute or reverse the letter and words.
Disgraphia _(Problem in writing) in this condition the child is unable to write constantly, his
handwriting clumsy and improper spaced.
Dyscalculia (Problem in calculating). The child may have many difficulties in making manual
calculation.
Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (Problem in paying attention) __ in this condition span of
attention is very limited and he is restless. He is inclined to pay attention to irrelevant stimuli. The
child can not sit even for a moment.
Dysphasia __ this is a language disorder there are two types of Dysphasia
o Child is unable to use language meaningfully
o The child is unable to understand spoken word.
VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
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Vision is one of our most important sources for the acquisition and assimilation of knowledge.
From the moment we wake up on the morning, our dependence on sight is obvious. A person having any
defect in this sense is called as visually impaired. Visual impairment including blindness means
impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a childs developmental and educational
performance
(According to Federal Regulations). This term includes both partial sight and blindness. Visual
impairment is the consequence of a functional loss of vision, rather then the eye disorder itself. The
impairment refers to abnormality of the functioning of eyes, the optic nerves or the visual center of the
brain due to disease, trauma, or a congenital or degenerative condition that can not be corrected by
conventional means, resulting in decreased visual acuity
A variety of terms are used to describe levels of visual dysfunctions, the field of education
distinguishes between blind and partially sighted , in order to determine the level and extent of additionalsupport services required by a person. Partially sighted is described as a person or student who has only
few percent of the total vision and are able to use their residual vision so that they can make best possible
use of it. This includes elimination of unnecessary glare. Removal of obstacles and using of special
lighting, magnification, illumination, specialized teaching aids as well as exercise designed to increase
visual efficiency. In case of total blinds performance levels are very low as they can not perceive anything
around them even though visual aids and modifications may be in use.
Blindness is a devastating physical condition with deep emotional and economic implication; the
consequences affect not only the individual but also the family and the community. A blind person loses
his or her independence and is prone to experience a sense of profound lost and depression arising of from
being plugged in darkness. The family particularly the parents directly shares the economic and emotional
burden and indirectly so does the community. Blindness from birth or early childhood has unique
problem. Thus much time and resources blindness with an aim to prevent it as for a possible.
BLINDNESS
The world Health Organization (WHO) has classified defective vision into various grades
categories of visual impairment 1 and 2 are referred to as Low Vision3, 4 and 5 are Blindness and
category 9 are as unqualified visual loss. If the extent of visual filed is also accounted for, patients with a
field less than 10 degrees but greater than 5 degrees around central fixation should be placed in category 3
and patients with field less than 5 degrees around central fixation should be placed in category 4 even if
visual acuity is not impaired.
Applying the WHO criteria for definition of blindness, i.e. a visual acuity of less than 3/60 in the
better eye with best possible refractive correction. Approximately 45 million people in the world are
estimated to be blind. Another 135 million people are deemed to be visually disabled i.e. are either
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visually impaired or severally visually impaired. The extend of disability perceived by an individual is
related in some degree to the general level of affluence in which he or she lives. The concept of functional
blindness occurring before the vision drops to 3/60 necessitated terms such as economic blindness in the
past. This is however, led to confusion in nomenclature because the standard of what was perceived as
economic blindness varied from country to country. For example in a developing country such as India,
vision less than 3/60 was classified as legal blindness and vision les than 6/60 was termed Economic
blindness on the other hand in a developing country Australia it was perceived that economic blindness
probably better relates to a vision worse than 6/12 a vision below this level adversely effects the ability of
a person to drive or function independently at the place of work. However, by changing the level of
accepted for functionally significant visual impairment. There will be an automatic alteration in the
statistics for global blindness the geographical distribution of blindness shows that the developing
countries bear at all the blind and visually disabled in the world. Many people in developing nations aredeprived of adequate healthcare and have no access to well established measures to prevent blindness. At
the same time, one must appreciate that the population all over the world is growing and ageing, so that
globally the absolute number of people with impaired or poor vision is increasing, together with the
prevalence of profound vision loss.
Some other commonly used definitions of visually impairment are as:-
Barraga ( 1983) defined a visually handicapped person as One whose visual impairment
interferes with his Optimal learning and achievement, unless adaptation are made in the methods of
presenting learning experiences, the nature of the material used, and/or in the learning environment.
Medical/ Legal definitions of blindness, adopted by the American Medical Association, states;
A person shall be considered blindness blind whose central nervous acuity does not exceed 20/200 in the
better eye with correcting lenses or whose visual acuity, if better than 20/200, has a limit in the central
field of vision to such a degrees that its widest diameter subtends an angle of no greater than 20 degrees.
Educational Definitions of blindness focus primarily on the persons ability to use. Vision as an
avenue for learning children who are able to use their sight and rely on other senses, such as hearing or
touch, are described as educationally blind. Craig and Howard (1981) indicate that Educational blindness,
in its simplest form can be defined whether the student muse use Braille when reading
LIMITATIONS IMPOSED BY SERIOUS VISUAL IMPAIRTMENT
Lowe felt B (1974) describes the following three major limitations imposed by serious visual
impairment.
Restrictions in the range of variety of experiences.
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This means that in the absence of vision the child with severe visual impairment may be deprived of such
experiences as the ordinary child has without effort. To illustrate, a young seeing child may look at an
orange, jump to pick it up, feel it, smell it and eat it. At one go, he has visual, auditory, tactire, gustatory
and smelling experience.
Restrictions on ability to get about, this means that a seriously visually impaired child may have difficulty
in moving about independently in unfamiliar environment. Why is this so? Because sight does not give the
child the total framework of the space in which he moves. Therefore, determining the direction of
movement poses special problems. This is particularly difficult in large open spaces. Further detection of
obstacles in the way may pose serious problems. He/she may run the risk of injury.
Restrictions in control of environment in relation to ones own self.
To illustrate it is not easy for a seriously visually impaired child to read facial expression. Reinforcement
of positive behavior may be denied to him if he cannot read the face of his mother to whether she ishappy. Parental approval is strong positive reinforces.
1. Low Vision
Low vision individual who can generally read, print although they may be dependant on optical
aids, such as magnifying glasses, magnifying lenses of means to enlarge size.
A few of them read Braille and print. Individuals with low vision may or may not be legally blind or
unable to see their visual / sense for learning.
2) Functionally Blind
Functionally blind individual is who typically use Braille for efficient reading and writing. They
may relieve on the ability to use functional reason for other tasks such as moving through the
environment/ shopping clothes by color, thus they use their limited reason to supply. They use tactual
/auditory learning methods.
3) To Talky Blind
Totally blind describes those individuals who do not receive meaningful input through the visible
sense. These individuals used tactual and auditory means to learn about their environment
CAUSES OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
The simplest classification of causes of visual impairment is as follows:
Ocular Diseases and Anomalies.
General and Systemic Diseases.
Injuries and Accidents.
Ocular Diseases and Anomalies:
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Buphthalnos:- It is infantile glaucoma, one of the rarest conditions in children. As infants eye is
elastic, increased eye ball pressure cause the eye to enlarge. It occurs mostly due to failure of development
of tissues in region of anterior chamber. It results into excessive watering, photophobia and cornea
becomes cloudy. Due to altered shape of eye, refractive errors may occur.
Albinism:- This is a hereditary conditions involving defective development of Pigment in hair,
skin and eye. In ocular albinism only .eyes are affected. The amount of pigmentation may increase slightly
with age up to adolescence and that results into improvement into visual acuity.
Retinitis Pigmentosa:- This is a hereditary slow degenerative disease of the retina. The condition
affects the peripheral area of retina including rod cells. It may result into nigh blindness. Tunnel vision
and inability to see in dark. Though some children are born with poor vision, it begins in childhood. It isprogressive and results into blindness in middle or advanced age.
Retinoblastoma:- This is malignant tumor of the retina. It is generally confined to infants,
probably always congenital and some cases are hereditary. It is often a bilateral condition and both the eye
ball may have to be removed.
Retrolental Fibroplasia:- It is associated with Pre-mature birth children who have been given
high concentration of oxygen. It is caused due to formation of new vessels and proliferation of fibrous
tissue in the retina.
Retinal Detachment:- It refers to separation of the retina properly from its pigment epithelium
layer.
Diabetes Meuitus:- It is hereditary disorder and affects retina. Also known as diabetic retinopathy
and it is common after the diabetes has tasted for 10 years. Due to this Senile Cataract develops at an
earlier age and more rapidly than usual. It leads to fluctuating vision, loss of color vision or visual field,
refractive error, decreased visual acuity.
Trachoma:- It is a chronic contagious disease of the conjunctive and cornea caused by an
organism Chlamydia, the primary infection affects conjunctiva and follides and corneal involvement
caused ulcers. As lid deformities cause misdirected eyelash
Trichiasis:- A part from the results of pumas and corneal ulceration, the most malign effects of
trachoma are caused by distortions of the lids. There is always some scarring and shape of the lids,
especially upper lid is altered and may be turned inwards leading to entropin. This causes the lids to rub
against the cornea. The condition of misdirected by eyelashes is called Trichiasis.
Glaucoma:- It is popularly known as Kala Motia or Neela Motia is a serious killer of eyesight.
Nearly one in ten persons in the work is visually impaired due to Glaucoma. It is cause by an obstruction
in aqueous outflow channels at angle of anterior chamber.
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Cataract:- It refers to loss of transparency of the lens. Usually in both the eyes, due to altered
physio chemical processes within tissues. The less often changes from being clear to a milky white color
and one feels as if booking through a dirty window.
GENERAL AND SYSTEMIC DISEASES
Many General and systemic diseases that affect the vascular and metabolic system put the eyes at
risk. Major diseases which may result into visual impairment are:-
Hypertension:- Vascular retinopathy is associated with raised blood pressure along with pronoun
ad degenerative changes in the retinal vessels. The circulatory changes lead to development of retinal
edema.
Vitamin deficiency:- Vitamin deficiency may lead to corneal damage, ulcerations and blindness, particularly in combining with measles or malnutrition. It is also known as Xaropathalimia blinding
malnutrition disease of darkness.
Chronic Diarrhea:- it is caused of blindness in renal areas. Generally loss of vitamin A leads to
softening of cornea which results into Keratomala.
INJURIES AND ACCIDENTS
Injuries, accidents and poisonings accovat for many known instances of visual impairment among
school age groups. Actually injures and accidents are not considered a major cause of blindness. Since
technically both eyes would have to be severally affected. The injuries are a major cause of preventable,
curable and monocular visual impairment. Most common injuries and accidents are traumatic and
chemical injures, lodging of foreign body in the eye and chemical burns.
CHARACTERISTICS OF VISUALLY IMPARIED
A disorder present at birth has a more significant effect on the development of the individual than
one that occurs later in life.
INTELLIGENCE
The intellectual development of the blind children differs from their sighted peers in some areas of
intelligence which range from understanding spatial concept to general knowledge of the world. The
intellectual development and performance can be negatively affected by the visual disorder which has
been confirmed by various experiments conducted on sighted and sightless children
SPEECH AND LANGUAGE SKILLS
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The person can learn speech and language primarily though the integration of visual experiences
and the symbols of the spoken word but people with visual disorders are at a distinct disadvantage in
developing speech and language skills because they are unable to visually associate the work with the
object. Thus the speech may develop at the slow rate for those who are congenitally blind.
EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
The educational achievement of a person with a visual disorder may be significantly delayed
when compared to that of sighted peers, some of the variables influencing educational achievement may
include excessive school absences due to the need for eye surgery or treatment as well as years of failures
in Programme that do not cater the students specialized needs.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
For a person with the visual disorder, these differences in perception may result in some social andemotional difficulties for example visually challenged people are unable to initiate the physical mannerism
of others and therefore do not develop one very important component of a social communication system
i.e. body language social problems may also result from the exclusion of a person with a visual disorder
from social activities that are integrally related to the use of vision such as sports or the movies.
ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY
The individual may be unable to orient to other people or object in the environment simply
because they can not see them. Hear of sight may prevent persons from understanding their own relative
position in space and consequently prevent them from moving in the right direction.
TRAINING PROCESSES AND SERVICES FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED:
Visual impairment affects many activities of daily living and requires new techniques and skills to
perform these activities safely and effectively. Training enables individuals to learn skills that will
enhance full participation in work, community and home, independent travel, household management,
employment services, communication and group interaction.
The different areas where training is necessary for the visually impaired are as follows;
BRAILLE TRAINING
Pre Braille Training
Should be incorporated in training process of visually impaired. in this training , inmates are
trained to be sensitive to the position of six cells and to distinguish the difference between dots and lines
by using peg boards.
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Tactile and Braille Training
Should be made available for the visually impaired children in order to acquire sensory acuity and
efficiency in their general training process.
Reading symbolic pictures
In raised forms should be another specialized area of training in rehabilitation centre. Braille text
books require the incorporation of graphic illustration because when they are in the form of photos, they
are too complicated to be represented in line graphics and thus brief descriptions have to be incorporated.
Orientation and Mobility
Independent travel is the primary goal of any training process, whether using the white come, a
sighted guide or a dog guide. Training is geared to each persons desires and needs. O& M training should
be enables the individual to travel safely, efficiently and confidently and facilitates the integration,
flexibility and agility. Before designing orientation and mobility training Programme for visuallyimpaired, special attention should be paid on their general health condition, the presence of other physical
or sensory impairment and their individual learning difficulties. Orientation and Mobility training
enhances confidence of visually impaired in the ability to travel independently.
LIVING SKILLS
Some people with sight problems may be able to do almost everything for themselves while others
may require much more help. A person confronted with blindness may feel limited and frustrated in
performing everyday activities previously taken for granted. Tasks such as dressing, eating, waiting,
reading, and traveling may become difficult to perform independently. Communication with other people
by ordinary means is often hampered as is the ability to keep up with the daily news and current events.
Strategies need to be provided to the visually impaired to help them accomplish tasks ranging from
routine (managing money, making a cup of coffee) to complex activities such as arranging an entire
wardrobe ,shopping, kitchen organization, and preparation of complete meals. The emphasis should be on
learning by doing techniques and methods should be target and their integrated into the individuals daily
routine.
MANUAL SKILS
Training in this area helps a person who has little or no vision with the means to develop and
improve organizational skills awareness of the environment, safe and efficient work habit, spatial
relationships and an understanding and mastery of tactual ability, the manual skills training focus on the
sequential development of skills and builds confidence. Training can be presented in several areas and
may include (but is not limited to) handicrafts, home mechanics, woodworking, metal working, leather
work, weaving and ceramics.
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VISUAL SKILLS
Visual Skills training should address the needs of individual with remaining vision and help them
in gaining a better understanding of their eye problems through therapy. Instructions should focuses on
effective use of remaining vision through the development and use of visual motor and visual perceptual
skills. This approach may allow individuals who have vision to accomplish a variety of tasks such as
reading printed material and to use their vision to perform routine activities of daily life independent
travel.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Blindness or loss of vision many times requires different method of communication than used prior
to vision loss. The training in communication skills should include techniques to enable the individual to
continue communication and may include reading and writing Braille tape according, handwriting and theuse of adaptive writing Braille tape recordings, hand writing, and the use of adaptive aids, the talking book
Programme, and low vision techniques this training in communication enables and visually impaired to
maintain a normal means of communication with other people.
PHYSICAL CONDITIONING
Training should be offered for physical condition under medical supervision which helps to
improve the physical condition of an individual.
COUNSELLING
Individual and group counseling should be a liable to assist persons in making the adjustments
required by vision loss learning more about blindness and low vision helps the person to understand how
to accommodate for the changes in their lives.
EMPLOYMENT SERVICES
In this area training should be provided to an individual so that he/she can obtain or regain or
resume employment once independent living skills have been learned. Individual participate in interest
inventories and develop resumes and ability statements that can be shared with a potential employer.
RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Recreational activities should be provided to visually impaired in order to provide opportunities to
attend supporting events, theaters movies, concerts as well as Social gatherings of various kinds.
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ADAPTIVE TECHNOLOGY
The training in this area offers demonstrations with many types of specialized equipments. Among
these are computers with speech, which include adaptive software Programme such as JAWS and
Window Eyes and screen magnification such as zoom text.
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
In this area of training computer speech access, computer screen magnification Braille note
takers close circuit television worksite accommodations should be used.
ATTITUDES TOWARDS VISUALLY IMPARIED
There has been considerable stress in literature on the fact that the maladjustment of the blind is
not due to actual visual impairment but rather due to the attitudes of the sighted towards the blind and due
to the emotional stress placed on them by the sighted in social situations. .
Therefore societal attitudes place the handicapped in a subordinate status in some ways like that of
ethnic minority groups. .Attitudes are social but not static, they are formed in social groups and are about
other people, and can affect our relationships with others, we can into always see altitudes directly in
behaviors, we infer them from through they are, altitudes have a powerful influence on everyones life.
SOCIETAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS VISUALLY IMPARIED
In primitive or economically marginal societies, blind infants were usually not permitted to
survive. It was assumed that blind infants would always be a burden and such or burden could not be
tolerated there are numerous beliefs about blind people, such as they are musical, dependant, helpless, or
beggars. The blind thought of as immoral and evil beings living in a world of darkness to be feared,
avoided and rejected. This emphasizes the unknown and mysterious aspect of the impairment. Our
religious beliefs equate blindness with the state of darkness and void. A few religions explain blindness as
occurrence caused by sin committed in ones past life, which others believe that blindness is a kind of
suffering which leads to purification and eventual betterment of a person in his spiritual life. There are
basically two major societal attitudes towards the blind.
The first conjures up a picture of helplessness, hopelessness and misery while the second endures
the blind with extraordinary intellectual and spiritual power. The first category of attitudes towards the
blind person can not do rather then what he can do. Copying with such negative attitudes is often a greater
challenge to the blind person then copying with the impairment itself. People who believe that the lack ofvision endows an individual with supernatural abilities. Such as sharpness of hearing and touch or some
artistic ability.
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Role of Family
The family plays a very important role in shaping our personality. It is the first social environment
that a child gets in its life. It has been proved that the adjustment towards mental problem of each
individual member in the family is usually related to interdependent with other members. The culture, the
socio economic status the educational level of the family particularly the parents and their relation with
the visually handicapped child determine, the level and quality of adjustment of the child to his own
disability and to the society. The role of the parents especially the mother, is most crucial in this process.
A family which is steeped in orthodox culture, follows a fixed system of belief disbelief and
authoritarian in outlook, tends to transmit a close minded and dogmatic attitude to its members who alsoresist change in the existing systems to meet the demands of a new situation. The family relation being all
pervasive and rightly motivating, its rejection of the Childs disability by the family depends on the
closeness and openness of the society of which it is a unit. The main determinant of the level of
acceptance by family, particularly the parents is the ant minority and basically negative attitude of the
society. Family being a social unit its behavior is naturally influenced by the social mores, customs,
traditions, belief etc
A child is dependant on parents and significant others in the family not for food and shelter but
also for protection, approval and affection. If the parents of visually impairment child are cold,
disinterested or expressly hostile, the child feels rejected because he gets from them less than he needs.
For some parents, the Childs impairment represents frustration of their own aspirations. If the parents feel
guilty about the blindness they project their own guilt upon the child, finding fault with it or becoming
angry with it. Another difficulty arises when the parents who have strong need for social approval, feel
that the Childs handicap reflects adversely on them. The opposite type is over protection which makes the
child completely dependant on others. If this first mentioned parental behavior be termed hostile,
overprotection should view as disguised hostility, and total lack of faith in abilities of the child. These
attitudes indicate how level of family acceptance of the Childs handicap which in turn, lowers the ability
of the child to develop a healthy attitude towards his limitations.
The family which accepts its visually handicap member with all his potentials and limitation
without imposing any of its own attitude on him, help the handicapped member to recognize himself in the
most desirable way. It is true that to accept dispassionately a members blindness requires a high degree of
emotional restraints on the part of the parents and other members of the family, but there is no other way
from the visually impaired child point of view. This is the ideal condition which should be strived for but
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hard to achieve generally the parental altitude remains a mixture of hostility and helpless tolerance of an
unavoidable permanent loss.
There should be a family a Programme the purpose of the family Programme should involve the
individuals family in the rehabilitation a process and to demonstrate the changes visually impaired has
mad. The family Programme is a very important aspect of rehabilitation, because it enlightens and
educates the family member and helps to reinforce rehabilitation lessons once an individual returns home.
Moreover the family Programme should be such that it helps the family members in their own adjustment
to the individuals vision loss by identifying problems or misconceptions they have that may negatively
affect the veterans adjustment.
Role of parents towards visually impaired children
The parents will need information about how lack of site can effect normal development, and what can be
done to lessen the impact they should also be helped by practical suggestions about daily care of the child
and developmental needs of the adolescence and what can expect of him. This is not so but it may result
inadequate expectations of meaningful experience for the visually impaired child informed and loving.
Parents can do more than anyone else to provide their child with a positive climate for healthy growth and
development. Parents need to be convinced that he is much more like other children than he is different,
and the same old rules of love him, set limits, let him grow up, still apply. They should know that there is
no one, special universally used method to teach a blind child. Whatever technique is comfortable family
will probably give to the best one for their child. When the child develops confidence in themselves to
innovate experiments with methods and above all are able to convince their child they expect him to grow
and learn, then they will feel pride in their parenthood.
Parental attitude towards visually impaired.
Parents of visually impaired children play a major role in their adjustment to the handicapped. The family
serves as a major source of interpersonal influences that affects, what blindness comes to mean to the
blind child. What he/she does with it? Parental attitudes are responsible for emotional climate at home in
which blind child grows. In fact attitudes are not the result of any conscious decision, but the product of
the interaction between people and their environment.
When blindness occurs, the entire family begins an adaptive struggle to regain its equilibrium. The
blindness of one may alter the lifestyle of other family member drastically. The family understands the
blindness on the basis of information of blindness. Early intervention in the form of communicating
appropriate information by health worker/social workers will certainly diminish unnecessary anxiety and
this will allow family members to strive for adjustment goals. If the family is in doubt about the nature of
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blindness and its implication, then this uncertainly creates continuous tension and inhibits the family
realistic plan and goals.
Parents of blind children are frequently said to go through certain stages as they come to terms with
childs blindness. All parents off blind children at one time or another experience these feelings but it is not
known whether they experience these stages in t he same sequence or not. These stage are as under.
Denial and isolation
This stage manifests itself as a denial response where efforts are made by the parents to minimize the
implication of blindness. Basically this stage serves as momentary escape for the parents who are
attempting to cope with feeling of guilt or shock.
Anger
During this stage anger is directed towards the professional or social worker who did either or too much or
not enough, towards fate or simply towards anyone and anything at times anger is so intense that ittouches almost everyone because it is triggered by feeling of grief and inexplicable loss that one does not
know to explain, nor how to deal with
Bargaining
This stage is characterized by a search for a cure or another doctor. Parents seek second or third
opinions regarding the childs health and to the extend of the handicap.
Depression
During this stage, the handicapping condition begins to having its full impact on the family
and depression starts permeating all aspects of the family relationships.
Acceptances
This stage is characterized by parents acceptance of their handicapped child as an individual with his own
strengths and weakness.
These stages may last for shorter or longer durations. It may sometimes happen that parents may never
come out of one particular stage and the feeling that it engenders. As a result their feelings may become
rigid and influence their attitudes for a lifetime in a particular direction.
Sommers has conducted a study described five distinct types of parental attitude
Acceptance of the child and his handicap.
The father of the handicap child out times three stages in the growth of a parent. At the first stage
parent is concerned almost wholly with himself and the effect of handicapped child on him. During the
second stage the parent think less of himself and more about the handicapped child on him, seeking
service and the resources for the childs benefit. In the final stage of acceptance the parents are able to see
more clearly and rationally to be concerned about their children and to work for their benefit. Acceptance
involves a warm respect for the child as he appreciation of his asset, tolerance for his short comings to
him. Acceptance could be felt in a home which is free from tension where people are comfortable with
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each other. Acceptance of the child is more desirable form of parental ATTITUDE their misfortune but
they dont allow these feelings to over-power them. These parents give special facilities to their blind
child but dont give special privileges. As these special privileges may make their other children jealous
and ultimately turn them against their blind brother or sister
Denial
There are parents who have natural love for their blind child and dont accept his handicap as a
reality. They make effort and sacrifice for the child just to prove to themselves and others that their blind
child is not less capable than any other seeing child. They wish their blind child to compete with and even
surpass his seeing companions and thus force him into over exertion.
Over protection
Parent who forget that their blind child is primarily a child and blind later fall in this category.
They overprotect their blind child and do a result they deprive of him of all experiences which are normalto children as well. Consequently, the blind childs growth and development is related considerably. In a
way, overprotection is rejection since parents secretly do not accept the blind childs potentialities.
Disguised Rejection
There are a parent who actually rejects their blind but try to compensate for their feeling of guilt by
apparent concern about the child. They try to demonstrate love and willingness to sacrifice everything for
their blind child but in reality the consider blindness as disgrace and blind child as burden .There are
parents who in actuality reject their blind child but try to cover their body image is formed from postural
cues, tactile impressions, visual appearance, degree of functional effectiveness and from social
reinforcement. A handicapped person is aware of his body and his potential and limitation which actually
distinguish him from the non handicapped person. These are know as criterial attributes. Those aspect of
the disabled person and specially physical ones which society regards as differentiating him most from
others are known as defining attributes .The greater discrepancy between criterial and defining attributes
of insecurity in person. The process of getting the handicapped to accept his handicap is one which
attempts to narrow the gap between defining and criterial attributes .Parental and societal plays a pivotal
role in this process. SOMMERs has arrived at the highly important conclusion that up the resulting
feelings of guilt by displaying false concern for him. They put up a show of love and self sacrifice but
covertly consider blindness of the child a disgrace and burden.
Open Rejection
In this category fall parents who are openly hostile to their blind child and display total and compete
rejection of him. They dont pretend to have any affection or love for the child. This attribute may stem
from shame from feeling of shame or disbelief in the childs potential.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
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1. To s tudy the emotional at t i tude of par ents towards visually impaired children
2 . To s tudy socio -economic s ta tus o f paren ts o f v isual impaired ch i ld ren.
3 . To s tudy the ad justment o f parents towards v isual Impairment ch i ld ren .
4 . To s tudy the fu tu re goals o f parents fo r thei r v isual ly impaired ch i ld ren .
5 . To s tudy socia l s t igma of the paren ts hav ing v isual ly impaired chi ld ren.
Hypotheses of the Study
1 . The parents have fee l ing o f re jec t ion towards visual ly impaired ch i ld ren.
2 . There wi l l be pos i t ive a t ti tude o f parents hav ing socio -economic s ta tus .
3 . There wi l l be negat ive a t ti tude o f paren ts hav ing low socio -economic s ta tus.
4 . There wi l l be pos i t ive a t ti tude o f parents hav ing v isual ly impaired ch i ld ren.
5 . There is no d i f ference o f at t i tude among ch i ldren .
6 . There i s a posi t ive re la tion o f v isual ly impaired ch i ldren wi th thei r paren ts .
7 . There i s no d i fference o f a t t itude among paren ts belong ing f rom h igh, midd le ,
low socio-economic Status .
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF
LITERATURE
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Research conducted by American occupied Therapy association (AOTA) 2002 to asses the parental
attitude for providing the rehabilitation services to their blind children. The study revealed that most of the
parents want to provide the rehabilitation services as they believe that these services will initial
environmental adaptation and compensatory strategies which help people improve their independent
functioning or counseling to address psychosocial aspect of ones loosing sight.
Sommers (1999) interviewed 19 Parents about their attitude towards their VI children it was revealed that
there were five distinct types of parental attitude i.e. Acceptance of the child, and his handicap, denial,
overprotection, disguised reflection, open rejection towards their wards.
Dixit (1995) studied parents attitude towards educating their visually impaired wards. It was revealed that
all the parents were to give best education to their wards in order to make them useful member of societyand not liability.
Hunter (1994) had conducted to assess the attitude of parents towards their visually impaired wards. The
study revealed that the maximum parents showed positive attitude towards their children as they were
belonging to high income status and rest of parents who showed negative attitude towards their wards
were belonging to low income status.
Morris 1974 Conducted the Parental Attitude Research Instrument (PARI) to study the attitudes of
mothers towards their V.I. Children. The PARI was chosen as a suitable instrument by which to study how
mothers felt about family life and their role as parents. Theoretically it was assumed that such attitudes
would extend to the mothers behavior toward her child and would, in turn, exert a direct influence on the
Childs development.
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CHAPTER III
Methodology
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CHAPTER III
Methodology
The Present research was planned to study psychological Characteristics and attitude of the parents
of visually impaired children. Focus on Kashmir valley. The Sample comprised of both male & female in
the different districts of the Kashmir Valley. All the Subjects (N=40) were drawn from the valley only.
Subjects were segregated in to the three different socioeconomic status. The study was carried out to
examine the parental attitude of children with visually impaired.
Sample Design
Table:-
The following table shows the breakup of Sample from nine Districts of Kashmir Valley.
S. No Districts No of Respondents
01 Srinagar 12
02 Baramullah 05
03 Budgam 08
04 Bandipora 02
05 Pulwama 0406 Kulgam 01
07 Anantnag 04
08 Ganderbal 01
09 Kupwara 03
Total 40
Sample
The sample of the study was drawn from nine districts of Kashmir Valley. Due to the very
sensitive issue the visually impaired were not available at one place or in one plate form. That is why the
selection of sample is not equal in all the nine districts. But one thing has been kept in mind during the
door to door survey of this study that socioeconomic status and the gender and occupation as well.
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Table3.1
Gender Sample percentage
Male 20 50
Female 20 50
Total 40 100
The fo l lowing tab le shows the Socio Economic Status of responden ts .
Table 3.2
Socio-Economic Status Sample Percentage
Low 11 27.5
Middle 19 47.5
High 10 25
Total 40 100
The above given table shows that 27.5 % respondents were belonging to low socio economic status
and 47.5% were belonging to Middle class families, whereas just 25% were belonging to high socio
economic status.
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The below given table shows the occupation of the respondents
Table 3.3
Occupation Sample Percentage
Business Class 25 62.5
Government Employees 15 37.5
Total 40 100
The above given table shows that the maximum number of respondents i.e. 62.5 % belonged to business
class where as just 37.5% parents of visually impaired children were government employees.
The following table shows the District to which the respondents belonged.
Table 3.4
District Sample Percentage
Srinagar 12 30
Baramullah 05 12.5
Budgam 08 20
Bandipora 02 05
Pulwama 04 10
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Kulgam 01 2.5
Anantnag 04 10
Ganderbal 01 2.5
Kupwara 03 7.5
Total 40100
VARIABLES
IMPAIRMENT
It is denied as any loss or no normality of psychological, physiological or anatomical structure of
functions generally taken to beat organ level.
VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
It is defined as a vision that is in some way abnormal, to such an extend, that special devices and /oreducational aids may be necessary for successful learning.
ATTITUDE
Attitude is a specific mental state of the individual towards something according to which behavior
towards it is molded.
TOOL Used
In order to study the parental attitude a simple questionnaire was developed on the basis of the
objectives of the present study.
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The questionnaire has twenty different questions with five different responses. Which comprises the
questions focus the parents attitude towards Visually Impaired children i.e. emotions, feelings, future
goals, expectation financial crisis, educational needs etc.
Procedure
The study was carried out in different districts i.e. Srinagar Baramullah, Budgam
Bandipora, Pulwama, Kulgam, Anantnag, Ganderbal, Kupwara, 40 subjects were drawn from all the
districts,
For collection of the data, A questionnaire was given individually to the parents after establishing the
proper report with them. They were requested to answer each question freely, without any pressure. They
were also assured that their responses will be kept confidential.
Data Analysis
After the required data were gathered, it was analyzed with the help of simple statistics technique
i.e. percentage and their content analysis was done to find out the attitude of Parents having children with
visual Impairment.
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CHAPTER IV
RESULTS
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CHAPTER IV
Results
The following four tables shows the percentage of background information of the respondents.
The below given table shows the percentage of the gender of the respondents.
Table 4.1
Gender Sample percentage
Male 20 50
Female 20 50
Total 40 100
The above table shows that 50% parents of visually impaired were male and 50% were females.
The following table shows the Socio Economic Status of respondents.
Table 4.2
Socio-Economic Status Sample Percentage
Low 11 27.5
Middle 19 47.5
High 10 25
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Total 40 100
The above given table shows that 27.5 % respondents were belonging to low socio economic status and
47.5% were belonging to Middle class families, whereas just 25% were belonging to high socio economic
status.
The below given table shows the occupation of the respondents
Table 4.3
Occupation Sample Percentage
Business Class 25 62.5
Government Employees 15 37.5
Total 40 100
The above given table shows that the maximum number of respondents i.e. 62.5 % belonged to business
class where as just 37.5% parents of visually impaired children were government employees.
The following table shows the District to which the respondents belonged.
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Table 4.4
District Sample Percentage
Srinagar 12 30
Baramullah 05 12.5
Budgam 08 20
Bandipora 02 05
Pulwama 04 10
Kulgam 01 2.5
Anantnag 04 10
Ganderbal 01 2.5
Kupwara 03 7.5
Total 40100
The data given in table 4.4 shows the percentage of respondents are from different districts of valley. The
majority of respondents belongs to district Srinagar i.e. 30% where as 20% belongs to Budgam , 12.5 are
from Baramullah, 10% of respondents are from Pulwama, other 10% of respondents belongs to Pulwama,
other 10% of respondents belongs to Anantnag , 7.5% and 5% respondents were from district Kupwara
and District Bandipora respectively. And a very little number of respondents were from Kulgam and
Anantnag that is just 2.5%.
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Table 4.5
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to, Parents are responsible for
healthy environment at home.
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 18 45
Agree 22 55
Neutral - -
Disagree - -
Strongly Disagree - -
Total 40 100
The above table shows that 45% of parents having Children with visual impairment were strongly agreed
with the above statement where as 55% were agreed with the same statement asked by the researcher.
Table 4.6
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude, in response to Due to blindness the whole
family is involved badly
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 15 37.5
Agree 10 25
Neutral 03 7.5
Disagree 08 20
Strongly disagree 4 10%
Total 40 100
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Agree 8 20
Neutral - -
Disagree 08 20
Strongly disagree 7 17.5
Total 40 100
The above table 4.8 revealed that about majority of the parents i.e. 42.5 % were strongly agreed with the
above statement where as 20% were agreed, 20% were disagreed and minimum amount of parents i.e.
17.5% were strongly disagreed and nobody gave neutral response of the statement.
Table 4.9
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to this statement that, Your
parents concern is less about yourself, and more about your visually impaired child.
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 18 45
Agree 13 32.5
Neutral - -
Disagree 4 10
Strongly disagree 5 12.5
Total 40 100
The above table 4.9 showed that about majority of parents that is 45% were strongly agreed and 32.5 were
agreed where as 12.5 were strongly disagreed and 10% were disagreed and no body was neutral with the
above statement.
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The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to this statement that You have
mild feeling of resentment against their misfortune
Table 4.10
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 11 27.5
Agree 06 15
Neutral 01 2.5
Disagree 12 30
Strongly disagree 10 25
Total 40 100
The above Table 4.10 showed that about 30% of parents of VI were disagreed with the above statement,
where as 27.5% were strongly agreed, 25% were strongly disagreed, 15% were agreed and minimum
respondent that is just 2.5% gave neutral response with the above statement.
TABLE 4.11
The following table shows the percentage of attitude in response to this statement of VI parent that
Parent should do everything for their visually impaired children
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 20 50
Agree 18 45
Neutral 02 5
Disagree - -
Strongly disagree - -
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Total 40 100
The above table showed that about 50% parents of visually impaired was strongly agreed with the above
statement, where as 45% were agreed and only 5% were mental and no body was disagreed or strongly
disagreed the above statement.
TABLE 4.12
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude , in response to this statement that You
have a feeling of rejection towards your visually impaired children
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree - -
Agree - -
Neutral - -
Disagree 10 25
Strongly disagree 30 75
Total 40 100
The above table 4.12 revealed that about majority of parents that is 75% strongly disagreed with the above
statement, where as 25% disagreed. There were not single parents who strongly agreed or disagreed or
gave neutral response.
Table 4.13
The following table shows their percentage of parental attitude in response to this statement that You
consider your blind child as a burden
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 01 2.5
Agree 02 5
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Neutral - -
Disagree 17 42.5
Strongly disagree 20 50
Total 40 100
The above table divulges that 50% of parents strongly disagreed and 42.5% disagreed with the above
statement where as just 5% agreed and 2.5% of parents strongly agreed
TABLE 4.14
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to this statement that You got
feeling of shame or disbelief in the child potential.
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree -
Agree 05 12.5
Neutral 15 37.5
Disagree 07 17.5
Strongly disagree 13 32.5
Total 40 100
The above table 4.14 reflects that 37.5% of parents were neutral with the above statement where as 32.5
strongly disagreed 17.5 disagreed and 12.5 agreed.
Table 4.15
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that My
family members feels indifferent in front of the blind child
Degree Sample Percentage
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Strongly Agree 05 12.5
Agree 08 20
Neutral 01 2.5
Disagree 15 37.5
Strongly disagree 11 27.5
Total 40 100
The above table No 4.15 reflects that 37.5% parents strongly disagreed with the above statement whereas
27.5% strongly disagreed, 20% of parents agreed, 12.5 % of parents agreed, 12.5% of parents strongly
disagreed and only 2.5% parents were neutral.
Table 4.16
The following table shows the percentage of parents attitude in response to the statement that You
suffer from financial crisis due to your visually impaired
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 15- 37.5
Agree 03 7.5
Neutral - -
Disagree 15 37.5
Strongly disagree 7 17.5
Total 40 100
Results from the above table 4.16 indicates that 37.5% of parents were strongly agreed and also 37.5 % of
parents were disagreed with the above statement where as 17.5% strongly disagreed and just 7.5% agreed
with the same.
Table 4.17
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that your child
faces problem in interaction with the environment
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Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 10 25
Agree 16 40
Neutral 04 10
Disagree 05 12.5
Strongly disagree 05 12.5
Total 40 100
The above table 4.17 divulges that 40% parents agreed with the above statement whereas 25% shows thatthey strongly agreed and 12.5% disagreed and other 12.5% strongly disagreed and 10% parent were
neutral.
Table 4.18
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that You are
emotionally unstable because of your Childs disability
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 19 47. 5
Agree 17 42.5
Neutral - -
Disagree 02 5
Strongly disagree 02 5
Total 40 100
Result from the above table 4.18 specifies that about 47.5% of the parents strongly agreed and 42.5%
agreed with the above statement, where are first 5% of parents strongly disagreed and also other 5%
disagreed with the same.
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Table 4.19
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that you feel
your child is dependant and helpless.
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 04 10
Agree 05 12.5
Neutral - -
Disagree 15 37.5
Strongly disagree 16 40
Total 40 100
The above table 4.19 shows that 40% parents strongly disagreed and 37.5% disagreed with the above
statement where as 12.5 % agreed and 10% strongly disagreed with the same.
Table 4.20
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that, I am
worried about the future of my visually impaired child
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 20 50
Agree 10 25
Neutral 06 15
Disagree 04 10
Strongly disagree - -
Total 40 100
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Result from the above table shows that the majority of the parents that is 50% are strongly agreed with the
above statement whereas25% agreed, 15% were neutral and least amount of parents i.e. 10% disagreed.
Table 4.21
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that Blindness
limits development of your child
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 10 25
Agree 03 7.5
Neutral 04 10
Disagree 15 37.5
Strongly disagree 08 20
Total 40 100
The above table 4.21 indicates that 37.5% parents disagreed with the above statement whereas 25%
where strongly agreed, 20% were strongly disagreed, 10% with neutral and only minimum amount i.e.
7.5% respondent were agreed with the statement.
Table 4.22
The following shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that There is no
partiality among children
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 20 50
Agree 15 37.5
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Neutral - -
Disagree 05 12.5
Strongly disagree - -
Total 40 100
The above table 4.22 revealed that majority of parents was strongly agreed whereas 37.5 % were agreed
and 12.5% were disagreed with the above statement.
Table 4.23
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that You
provide special education to the visually impaired child
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 17 42.5
Agree 05 12.5
Neutral 08 20
Disagree 06 15
Strongly disagree 04 10
Total 40 100
The above table 4.23 divulges that about 42.5% of parents visually impaired were strongly agreed with the
above statement whereas 20% were neutral 15% were disagreed, 12.5% were aggrieved and 10% were
strongly disagreed with the same.
Table 4.24
The following table shows the percentage of parental attitude in response to the statement that , your
child can compete with everything
Degree Sample Percentage
Strongly Agree 13 32.5
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Agree 10 25
Neutral 10 25
Disagree 05 12.5
Strongly disagree 02 5
Total 40 100
The above table 4.24 reflects that about 32.5% parents were strongly agreed whereas 25% were agreed
25% were neutral 12.5% were disagreed and only minimum amount of 5% respondents were strongly
disagreed with the above statement.
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CHAPTER -V
DISCUSSION
CHAPTER -V
DISCUSSION
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The present study was intended to collect the information about the parental attitude towards the visually
impaired children. The study aims to evaluate the emotional attitude, and to assess the social economic
status, adjustment, future goals as well as social stigma of parents having children with visually Impaired.
For this purpose all these sample were drawn from different districts of Kashmir valley. The data was
analyzed with the help of simple statistical technique on percentage basis. For this present study the
simple questionnaire was developed according to said objectives of the study. This Questionnaire/scale
has 20 different