Evaluation of the Portage Early Intervention Program in Light of the Tyler Model from the Perspective of Mothers of Children with Mental Retardation in Jordan

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate the Portage program in early intervention in light of Tyler's model from the perspective of mothers of children with intellectual disabilities in Jordan. The study included mothers of children with intellectual disabilities in the three regions of Jordan (North, Central, and South). Qualitative data were collected from a purposively selected group of 17 mothers, while quantitative data were collected through a questionnaire consisting of 57 items distributed across six criteria applied to a sample of 327 mothers selected proportionally through stratified random sampling. To achieve the study's objectives, two tools were used: semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire prepared after exploring the participants' opinions during the qualitative data collection phase to assess the opinions of mothers of children with intellectual disabilities. The results showed that the implementation and execution of the program faced some material, human, and geographical challenges, which led to lower quality in program implementation than planned. Additionally, statistically significant differences were found in the mean scores of the overall assessment degree attributed to the variable of intellectual disability (mild, moderate, severe) in favor of mild intellectual disability.