Parents’ Perceptions of the Problems in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Objectives: Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have valuable experiences of the possible developmental problems and other issues of their children as the primary caregivers. The present study aimed to obtain proper information by considering these experiences using a qualitative approach to explain the parents’ perception of problems in their children with ASD. Methods: This study with a qualitative design was performed on 35 parents of children with ASD (33 mothers and 2 fathers) who were selected via purposive sampling. The study data were collected using semi-structured interviews, and all sessions were recorded and immediately transcribed verbatim. We followed the Graneheim and Lundman (2003) content analysis approach (a step-by-step extraction of meaning unit, initial codes, subtheme, and theme). Results: We extracted 5 main themes of developmental, language comprehension and expression, social communication, behavioral, and general health problems. Each of these mentioned themes has several subthemes. Discussion: According to the results, the parents’ perceptions and experiences of their ASD children’s problems were similar to the findings reported by experts in a few related studies. Given the lived experiences of the parents of children with ASD, they could help enrich the references regarding the problems of children with ASD. Such data should be considered during the assessment and intervention for this group of children.