Experiences of parents of children diagnosed with autism and typically developing children: Childhood perceptions and experiences

This study, which was conducted to determine the perceptions of childhood of parents of children with autism and parents of typically developing children and the factors underlying these perceptions, was conducted in a mixed model, convergent parallel design, with a survey model in the quantitative dimension and a phenomenological design in the qualitative dimension. The study group of the research, which was formed by purposive and snowball sampling method, consisted of a total of 40 parents, 20 parents with typically developing children between the ages of 4-6 and 20 parents with children diagnosed with autism. In the quantitative dimension of the study, the "Assessment Tool of Beliefs About Children" was used, while in the qualitative dimension, the "General Information Form" and the "Semi-Structured Interview Form" developed by the researcher with expert support were used. In the quantitative findings of the study, it was found that the childhood perceptions of parents with children with autism and parents with children with typical development did not differ significantly (p>0.5), parental educational status (p>.05) and child gender (p>.05) had no effect on childhood perception, while parental age caused a significant difference in childhood perception (p<.05). In the qualitative dimension of the study, it was observed that the statements of the parents about the feelings they experienced when they learned that they would have a child were quite similar. However, it was determined that parents of children with autism and parents of children with typical development differed from each other in terms of their feelings about being a parent and their level of social support. In addition, the analysis results of the qualitative and quantitative data collected from the parents regarding their perceptions of childhood were found to be different from each other.