Emotional Trauma in Parental Involvement in Transitioning Learners with Intellectual Disabilities from Mainstream to Special Schools

Disability is associated with negativity, discrimination, shame, and stigma in townships, which impacts how parents interpret it when their child has a disability. Parents who have recently learned of their children’s intellectual disability often experience psychological and emotional trauma due to uncertainty and lack of knowledge and understanding of intellectual disabilities, including a lack of formalized and policy-supported transition programs in South Africa. Guided by Barbara Mowder’s Parent Development Theory, this study aimed to explore parents’ understanding of their role in transitioning learners with intellectual disabilities from mainstream to special schools. Using a qualitative case study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight purposively sampled participants from one chosen mainstream primary school in Soweto, Gauteng Province, South Africa. The results of the current study confirmed that the meanings participants attribute to their parent role characteristics during the transitioning of their children with intellectual disabilities are influenced by the connection between the Parent Development Theory’s parent role perceptions and the participants’ individual factors, including their educational background levels, which made a major contribution to how these parents perceived their parental role and their understanding of intellectual disabilities. The results highlight that owing to parents’ educational levels and cultural aspects, identifying learners with intellectual disabilities can be particularly challenging, with overwhelming, mixed emotions. The provision of psychosocial services in mainstream schools, as well as teacher training in skills to address the overwhelming parental support needs, will benefit parents and their intellectually disabled children by facilitating therapy and counseling during the transition process to overcome psychological challenges.