Determining the family needs of down syndrome children's mother and their views on social support perceptions

The research aims to examine the needs of parents who have children with down syndrome and determine the parents' ideas about social support. The research involved 20 voluntary participants who are parents of individuals with down syndrome and locate in İstanbul and Gaziantep, and the semi structured interview technique was used. As the result of mothers interview, the themes were determined and content analysis was used. The result of the study showed that the mothers of children with DS diagnostic need information about the concepts such as the acceptance of their children from the environment without differentation from norm children, deficiencies in areas which their children have and what they can do for their children, and also they stated the need of capital to meet their children's need and to have better educational opportunities. The mothers focused mostly on their children's education. They expressed their needs with respect to the time increase in the institutions which they were trained in management units, the arrangement of social activities, and the supervision of trainers. The mothers stated their expectations from the experts about speech language area for their children. The results also display that the mothers who lived in extended family need high level of support. Keywords:Down Syndrome, family needs, social support, family relations, sibling relations.