Browsing by Author "Lahti, Anni"

Objectives. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurobiological developmental disorder that involves challenges in social interaction and restricted/repetitive behaviors. Since generalization and maintenance of acquired skills is essential in the rehabilitation of ASD, it is important to integrate interventions into the home environment by parental guidance. There has been some research on the rehabilitation of children with ASD in Finland, but no research has been conducted on the guidance of parents from the perspective of speech therapist. The purpose of this study is to find out the views of parental guidance from speech therapists who rehabilitate children with ASD. Interviews with speech therapists will clarify the ways in which parents of children with ASD are guided through speech therapy and the challenges and contributing factors in parental guidance. Methods.The research method was a semi-structured interview. Five speech pathologists with experience in the rehabilitation of ASD were interviewed. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The data was analyzed by content analysis. Results and conclusion. Parental guidance of children with ASD was divided into information sharing, interaction & discussion and direct guidance. The challenges were parental strain, parent attitude and in some cases multiculturalism. Contributing factors appeared in training practices and home conditions. Challenges and benefits were influenced by the individuality of families. Speech therapists hoped for more opportunities to arrange separate parental guidance sessions so that they would be able to discuss deeper about the methods and family situation without the child’s presence. Speech therapists considered parental guidance important in the rehabilitation of children with ASD because, with the guidance of parents it helped to increase skills in everyday life and guaranteed training intensity. As parental strain was identified as a challenge in this study, it would be important to explore how they could be more effectively supported during rehabilitation. In addition, it could be explored whether separate parental guidance sessions should be increased or whether the number of parental guidance sessions has been adapted through the development of new working practices.