| This mixed methods study explored the meanings families make when parenting a child with Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD). Meanings refer to the ways in which people make sense out of their experience (Dunn, 1994). Participants were 17 parents from nine families whose children had been diagnosed with NLD. Parents were interviewed separately and asked questions about their feelings, experiences, and concerns regarding their child with NLD. Parents were also given the Questionnaire on Resources and Stress (QRS) short form (Holroyd, 1987) to triangulate the data. Using Patterson's FAAR model as a guide, data were analyzed using a basic interpretive approach and themes were found. The themes indicated that parents could positively adjust and adapt to caring for a child with NLD through changes in their meanings that involve different ways of viewing their situation, their family, and the world in which they live. The clinical implications of these findings involve providing families of children with NLD with an advance understanding of the changes in the meanings that they might experience, and assist professionals in offering family-centered services and supports to families. |
