Beyond the Classroom: A Case Study of Parents' Experiences in Parent-Mediated Interventions for Learners with Special Needs

Abstract

Background and Aim: Parent-mediated interventions have gained recognition as a cost-effective approach to supporting children with special needs, particularly in low-resource settings where professional services remain inaccessible. While existing literature has examined the effectiveness and barriers of these interventions, it has not fully captured how parents themselves experience their transition into this role, particularly through the lens of established transition theory. This qualitative case study addresses this gap by exploring how parents and caregivers of learners with special needs experience their transition into and sustained involvement in parent-mediated intervention, using Schlossberg's Transition Theory as a theory-informed analytic lens and extending it by examining how geographic and institutional scarcity appears to shape each of its four factors within a single resource-constrained setting.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive qualitative case study design was employed, anchored in an interpretivist and constructivist paradigm. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with six parents and caregivers who had sustained active involvement in parent-mediated intervention for at least six months at Malangas Central SPED Center, Malangas District, Division of Zamboanga Sibugay, Philippines. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's six-phase thematic analysis, applied deductively at the level of Schlossberg's four predetermined factors, Situation, Self, Support, and Strategies, with sub-themes developed inductively within each factor.

Results: Analysis within the four predetermined factors surfaced patterns of necessity-driven entry into the interventionist role, an initial period of self-doubt giving way to a personally constructed sense of capacity, a support landscape anchored heavily in SPED teachers with limited peer networks, and a reliance on self-built routines and coping outlets. Across participants, geographic and institutional scarcity appeared to condition how each of these factors was experienced, converging toward an outcome best described as sustained yet fragile parental involvement.

Conclusion: Among six already-engaged caregivers in one rural SPED setting, this study offers a theory-informed account of how geographic and institutional scarcity appears to shape parents' transition into and sustained practice of the parent-mediated interventionist role, extending Schlossberg's Transition Theory to a special education caregiving context in which it has not previously been applied. The proposed contextual pattern is offered as a case-derived interpretation warranting further examination in other settings, rather than an established or generalizable mechanism.