Examination of the opinions of parents of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder on family involvement

The aim of this study is to examine the opinions of parents of children aged 3-8 with Autism Spectrum Disorder on parental participation. The participant group consists of the parents of fourteen ASD children between the ages of 3-8 in two institutions affiliated to the Ministry of National Education. Qualitative research methods was carried out with phenomenological design, collected by semi-structured interview technique and analyzed by descriptive analysis method. In the findings of the study, the parents stated that they are satisfied with the education before they expressing their thoughts about participation. Parents who mentioned about the lack of training hours expressed their thoughts about participation as completing the assignments given by the teachers at home and playing extra games. They also said that observation contributes to their trainings at home. Parents who stated that participation is depend on the child mentioned that their child's problematic behaviors prevent their participation. However, those parents emphasized that they should participate to their child's education. In addition to these findings, there are evidences about some children who don't respond to parental participation in a positive way. The results obtained from the study were correlated with those in the literature and recommendations were made. Key words: Autism spectrum disorder, Parent perceptions, Qualitative research, Semi-structured interview, Descriptive analysis, Parent participation