Parental involvement in developmental disabilities across three cultures: A systematic review.
Across China, Taiwan, and Turkey, early-help research still leaves parents on the sidelines—so write parent-run goals into your behavior plans.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Acar et al. (2021) looked at 24 studies about how parents take part in early help for kids with developmental delays.
They focused on three places: China, Taiwan, and Turkey.
The team asked, "Do programs treat moms and dads as helpers, or just as watchers?"
What they found
Most papers only talked about what mothers did.
Few programs trained fathers or grandparents to run teaching steps.
In all three cultures, parents were rarely the main teachers of new skills.
How this fits with other research
Ku et al. (2022) asked U.S. and Korean parents about supporting physical play. American parents scored higher, showing culture shapes how ready parents feel to help.
Viljoen et al. (2021) scanned 33 global studies and saw that rich countries report broad child skills, while lower-income papers stress money and housing barriers.
Carollo et al. (2021) counted every DD paper from 1936-2020 and found most still come from North America. The new review fills a gap by spotlighting Asian families, but the field still lacks parent-led trials in those regions.
Why it matters
If you work with Chinese, Taiwanese, or Turkish families, plan extra coaching time. Expect that moms may be the only parent in the room. Build simple home sheets so any caregiver can practice. Start with one short routine—like requesting toys—so success feels easy and spreads to other skills.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Parents play a critical role in the early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) services provided to young children (birth-6 years) with developmental disabilities. AIM: The aim of this systematic review was to explore parental involvement in developmental disabilities across three cultures: Mainland China, Taiwan, and Turkey. METHOD: According to PRISMA guidelines, we searched for articles indexed in EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, and PubMed published within the last decade for one culture (i.e., Mainland China, Taiwan, and Turkey), using the following keywords: family/parent involvement/engagement, developmental disability/disabilities, young child/children, EI/ECSE, and culture. RESULTS: Twenty-four empirical studies were identified as relevant to our research. A majority of articles reported maternal involvement in EI/ECSE, and only a few studies included parents as intervention agents. CONCLUSIONS: This review highlights the need for future research to investigate effects of culture on parental involvement and develop culturally responsive methodical approaches to underpin meaningful parental involvement in EI/ECSE.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.103861