From 'Parent' to 'Expert': How Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Make Decisions About Which Intervention Approaches to Access.

Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder are responsible for deciding which interventions to implement with their child. There is limited research examining parental decision-making with regards to intervention approaches. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was implemented in this study. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 14 participants from 12 family units. Data collection and analysis occurred concurrently, allowing a grounded theory to be constructed. Parental decision-making was influenced by many factors, arranged into seven core categories (values, experience, information, motivation, understanding, needs and logistics). Decision-making evolved over time, as parents transformed from 'parent' to 'expert'. The results of this study provide an insight into parental decision-making, which has implications for the support provided to parents by health professionals.

"More than blowing bubbles": What parents want from therapists working with children with autism spectrum disorder.

PURPOSE: Providing therapy to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often requires therapists to work closely with both the child with ASD and their family. Although there is evidence outlining best practice for therapists when working with families of children with disabilities, few studies have examined the parental perspective. This study investigated the qualities parents seek in therapists who work with their children with ASD. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 parents of children with ASD. Thematic analysis was undertaken to analyse the data, with emergence of two core themes; Partnership and Effective Therapy. RESULT: The parents of children with ASD interviewed for this study valued both working in partnership with therapists and therapists delivering effective therapy. Parents ultimately wanted therapists to produce positive outcomes for their children and were willing to sacrifice other desired qualities, as long as the therapy program was effective. CONCLUSION: While parents of children with ASD identified a range of qualities that they want in therapists, a therapist being able to produce positive outcomes for their child was considered most important. The implications of these findings are discussed both in terms of clinical implications for therapists and directions for future research.

A comparison of oral narratives in children with specific language and non-specific language impairment.

This research investigated whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) and non-specific language impairment (NLI) could be differentiated by their oral narrative characteristics. Oral narrative samples were collected from 69 children and comparisons were made among four groups of participants. The two language impairment groups (SLI and NLI), aged 4;11-6;03, were matched for age and their linguistics skills. Their oral narratives were compared between these diagnostic groups and with age-matched and language-matched control groups. Measures of narrative structure, cohesion, and information did not significantly differentiate the SLI and NLI groups, suggesting that the influence of their similar linguistic skills on oral narrative measures was stronger than the influence of their differing non-verbal cognition. The SLI group produced significantly more complex and informative oral narratives than the language-matched group, while the NLI group differed from the language-matched group on fewer measures. Interactions among linguistic, cognitive, maturational, and task factors are discussed.

Exploring the boundaries of SLI: findings from morphosyntactic and story grammar analyses.

The nature of morphosyntactic and story-grammar differences were examined between children with SLI and children with language impairments that fell outside the diagnostic category for SLI solely because of their low non-verbal cognitive abilities (LNVA). Two oral narratives were elicited from 5-year-old children with language impairments and age-matched children with normally developing language. Morphosyntactic difficulties were found to be similar for children with SLI and children with LNVA. The children with SLI produced more complex stories than the children with LNVA when a complex wordless picture book was used, but not for a single scene picture stimulus. These findings challenge notions about the unique nature of SLI and, understandings of differences and similarities with other language impairments.