Family to Family Training: Theoretical Basis and Practical Example of Families Having Children with Down syndrome

Having offspring with special needs will encounter family with many pro-blems in social, educational and self-helping.Having deep relationships with another family with the same experience show the way to manage the problems. The purpose of family to family training is to transfer positive experiences of families to each other. 12 parents (11 mothers and 1 father) from Down Syndrome Organization voluntarily selected in the survey study. They participated in 5 weekly group session (lasting one month) to discuss their special experiences in relation to their children during preschool years. Among their experiences four highly ranked issues selected to present in training panel of Down Syndrome Conference. Three months after holding the Conference, demographical character-istics of volunteered participants in the conference (22 parents) recorded. Also, their satisfaction in relation to the presentation of familie's expe-rience and its usefulness of it, measured by a 20-items questionnaire (researcher-made). Findings indicated that the means of parent's satisfaction from training panel and its issues were very high. In regard to the limitation of sample size, its availability, holding training panel for preschools’ problems and lack of control of socially supportive systems in families, it is recommended that training courses such as, family to family training can be present in conferences held about individuals with down syndrome in all ages. This training method can be useful for planning the programs for streng-thening individuals with special needs and their families.