Beliefs about Various Forms of Psychological Support and Parental Attitudes in Parents of Children with Dyslexia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problems of contemporary psychology-beliefs, various forms of psychological support and the specificity of parental attitudes of parents of children with dyslexia. The aim of this article is to analyze the pa rents' beliefs about typical forms of psychological support in the context of the developmental dyslexia in their children and in terms of parental attitudes manifested by parents. The article shows that the parents' beliefs about the validity, effectiveness and necessity of psychological support are of great importance, because they determine the level of the child's commitment in the offered help. The study was carried out on 50 adults aged 25-45 (25 parents of children with dyslexia, 25 parents of nondyslexic children), with the use a selfdesigned survey which examined the beliefs concerning typical forms of psychological support and the Parental Attitudes Scale by M. Plopa. The study did not show any differences between the parents of dyslexic and nondyslexic children in terms of the validity and effectiveness of the diag nosis, consultations and psychotherapy, regardless of their own experience with regard to the child's use of help. It was found that the parents' experience regarding to the frequency of using psychological, logopedic and pedagogical care by their children is not a decisive factor in parents' convictions relating to various types of professional support. There are single links between some parental attitudes and parents' beliefs about various aspects of psychological support; there are no differences in intensity of these links in parents of dyslexic and nondyslexic children. It was found that parents' beliefs regarding psychological support may be due to the other factors that we have not taken into consideration and will be investigated in our further research.