The Effectiveness of Nutritional Edification Programs for Mothers and Supervisors of Autistic Children

ABSTRACTThe lack of health and food awareness of mothers is the uniting factorsaffecting the nutritional status of autism children.Therefore,theresearch sample was divided into two groups; which included the firstset before implementing the program of (75) mothers, a while the numbers ofsupervisors (68) were chosen from three centers in the cities of Cairo andMansoura.The second group composed of a total number of (29) mothers and(29) supervisors. The first model: a questionnaire for the mother,the secondmodel: aquestionnaire for the supervisors,the third model: A specialquestionnaire to develop the skill of the manual study sample in the basics ofnutrition and meal planning.The results showed after correcting their answersthat the degree ranged between 12 to 21 degree, an average of 17.17±2.28,which means the standard level, was average, which confirmed that moreadvanced workshops are needed to raise the level of theknowledge. Afterwardsapplying the workshop scheduled for extension program for the improvementof knowledge in planning meals that were measured through the knowledgetest. The test to measure the level of knowledge is evident from these resultsafter correcting their answers and their grades ranged between 13 to 25degrees, an average of 18.04±3.39 degree, which means, the standard levelwas average.The study concluded the importance of further educationprograms and the dissemination of food program at all extension centers in theArab Republic of Egypt.