Use of Online Support Groups by Parents of Students with Special Needs

The purpose of this study is to analyze the use of online support groups by parents of students with special needs. The study addresses the reasons that parents seek to join these online support groups and the information they expect to acquire within them. The reviewed literature focuses on aspects of special education along with previous studies that have been done on this issue. The sample of people used in the implemented survey was a purposive sample of several online parent support groups. The results show a very wide variety of concerns and issues that are bothersome to these parents which is evident in the manner in which they answered the survey questions. Together, these findings suggest that there is much that can be done in the way of improving the dissemination of information and support for parents of students with special needs