ABSTRACT

Purpose : This study investigated the consumer satisfaction of the rehabilitation counseling via internet for parents of children with developmental disabilities aged under 6.Methods : The web site for internet counseling (ddchild.com) consisted of 1,500-page information for educating children at risk, with mental retardation, autism, learning disabilities, and cerebral palsy. Internet counseling was conducted in the form of Q/A, real-time chatting, monthly interview, and search engine. The consumer survey form was dispatched to a total of 1,459 registered members and 91 (7%) of them replied to the survey. The survey included general information of the respondents, the types of disabilities they used mostly, their satisfaction level, criticisms and suggestions to this internet counseling.Results : The general characteristics of the respondents were: (1) The users were distributed across the nation from Seoul and its vicinity (61%) to Cheju (1%); (2) The respondents’ 68% was middle or lower middle class; (3) The types of disabilities were children at risk including learning disabilities and ADHD (37%), autism (21%), mental retardation (21%), cerebral palsy(18.5%). The 68% of the respondents were satisfied with the internet counseling, and 65% actively used the data base consisted of rehabilitation information for educating children with developmental disabilities. Regarding the usage of the data base, 49% replied that this program was very helpful, because the instructions were described with concrete examples, 47.7% “helpful in understanding how to teach these children,” and 27.7% “in better understanding the behaviors of these children.” As to the suggestions, the respondents demanded two things. One is that the government build more schools and centers for educating these children along with more economic support, and the other requests are related to the operation of this internet counseling: enforcing of speech therapy program, opening of demonstration program with regardto the usage of this system, and setting up a psychological counseling for the parents.Conclusion : Operation of the internet counseling system can be a viable approach for providing early intervention programs for parents with developmental disabilities with low-cost effectiveness in the country where early intervention has not been systematically established.