Famílias de crianças com síndrome de Down: escolarização, serviços de apoio, satisfação parental e suporte social

Abstract

The family is the child's first social environment and the basis for their child development. Families of children with disabilities have specific characteristics and needs. Knowing these families makes it possible to create programs to help them. This research was based on the bioecological perspective of human development defended by Bronfenbrenner. The objectives were: (a) to characterize the schooling of children with Down syndrome in the regular school network (b) to identify and analyze support services, parental satisfaction and social support of families of children with Down syndrome and (c) ) to relate parental satisfaction and social support with the sociodemographic data of these families. Participants were 13 mothers and 2 fathers of children with Down syndrome enrolled in public schools. The evaluative measures were: Critério Brasil, a questionnaire on social support and parental satisfaction and a semi-structured interview script. The interviews were individualized, face-to-face and online. Data were analyzed categorically and using measures of central tendency and dispersion. To correlate the variables, the Spearman correlation test was used. There was a diversity of care and needs of families. Parental satisfaction showed a high average and a positive correlation with the age of the parents, influencing the well-being of the child. Satisfaction with social support depended more on quality than quantity. It is concluded that there is a need for intervention programs and public policies that pay attention to the individualities of families of children with Down syndrome and offer quality support networks.