Parents of Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

One of the positive aspects of the TEACCH model is the philosophical stance of that program. Essentially, the TEACCH program assumes that families are going to vary in the levels of time the have available to work with their children, the interest they have in doing so, the skills they possess and can attain, and the degree of commitment they possess to work with the child over the long-term. They understand the multitude of pressures that are exerted on every family, and how those pressures are intensified with the introduction of a child with autism who has many different needs. Yet, there is also considerable pressure within most programs on family participation in the treatment of the child with autism, because that improves the prospects for the child and helps in maintaining behavior change (Harris and Handleman, 1994). The intention in this study is to explore some of the pressures that result when a child with autism is in a family setting and how those pressures impact the ability of parents to develop and maintain parent-teacher relationships.

The impacts on the family of having a child with autistic spectrum disorder are numerous and affect every area of family life. They include financial, physical, emotional, and psychological effects. Some of the most helpful descriptions of the impacts on families are available through published compilations of parent

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ionals are troublesome for many parents. Again, this seems to be the case with parents of children with many different types of disabilities. The general message of these parents' stories is that they want professionals, including teachers, to listen to them and give their input credibility. They believe that they know their children best and that this is not often recognized by the professionals working with them (Bowman et al., 1995). Evaluation of Services A final problem related to professionals and the treatment of the child is that parents have the burden of evaluating the various programs which are available and making the decision about what is best for the child. There is no uniformity in the field yet, even about such basic issues as whether autism is curable and what the potential is for a child with autism. There are programs that make claims of a cure, such as some of the Lovaas programs and the Son program, while most programs emphasize improvement of the child's communicative and intellectual capacity and reduction of behavioral problems. This is a huge difference in expectations. How do parents - who are not experts in the field and may never have read anything about autism - make decisions about these mat
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Pressure Professionals, Impacts Family, Service Plan, Todd Risley, Arabia Ashour, Parent/teacher Relationships, Newson Davies, Stress Holroyd, Society Britain, Grief Mourning, child autism, children autism, et al, parents children, extended family, programs children, family child, programs children autism, parent involvement, family child autism, family family, parents teachers, parents children autism, family service plan, applied behavioral analysis,
Approximate Word count = 5277
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page)

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