Home-school collaboration intervention: social-emotional competence of preschool children with visual impairment

Abstract

Home and school collaboration improves the social skills and resilience of children with visual impairment (VI). The current study explored the effect of home-school collaboration intervention on social-emotional competence in preschool children with VI. This research was an experimental study with pre-test, post-test and follow-up design with a control group. Thirty children with VI and their mothers were randomly chosen from Special School in Yasouj, Iran. Participants were randomly divided into treatment (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups. The treatment group attended in a ten-session home-school collaboration intervention, while the control group attended the placebo sessions. Mothers of children with VI in both groups responded to the Social-Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale for Preschool (SEARS-Pre) three times, at pre-test, post-test, and follow-up phases. The results of Repeated Measures ANOVA showed that the main effect of the time factor on social-emotional competence in participants was significant (p =.001, η2 = 0.98), and the effect of the intervention factor was also significant (p =.001, η2 = 0.94). The research suggests home-school collaboration can promote social-emotional competence in preschool children with VI. The results of this research increase the interest of teachers and parents of these children in home-school collaboration, which indicates its scientific value. Moreover, this intervention can be used as a treatment for improving social skills and emotional assets in children with VI. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.