Parents of Children with Disabilities Benefit from the Internet for Development, Learning, and Connecting

Vol. 6 No. 4

Year: 2011

Issue: Mar-May

Title: Parents of Children with Disabilities Benefit from the Internet for Development, Learning, and Connecting 

Author Name: Denise L. Winsor, Jessika C. Boles 

Synopsis: 

Good Parenting!  What it means and being prepared to do it is highly ambiguous in nature.  Most parents-to-be want to be good parents and readily believe they are prepared to be good parents.  That is until the baby arrives.  With every birth comes an even distribution of positive and negative thoughts and emotions.  In typically developing pregnancies and problem-free births the positive features are more prominent but this can change dramatically when parents are faced with discovering their unborn fetus or their child has a genetic abnormality, birth defect, disability, or chronic illness.  Children with serious medical illnesses and chronic disabilities endure many obstacles as they persist through cognitive, social, and emotional developmental milestones.  Technology can function as a tool to help accomplish crucial tasks of parenthood by promoting many aspects of child development (Blanchard, 1997).  However, a gap in the literature persists when it comes to how new technologies can provide critical information and support for parenting children with disabilities or chronic illnesses.  The focus of this paper is on how new technologies can supplement and provide a type of co-parenting support for parents of children with disabilities or chronic illnesses.