Parents with an autistic child may either notice it right away or take a while to observe the signs of it. The impact of noticing these symptoms on a child could have a severe and negative effect or consequence not only in the child itself but in the family and parents as well.
When coping with having an autistic child many things can interfere and get in the way. Yes, the child is or at least should be the most important person in a scenario like such mentioned but that does not mean that others who are surrounding the child will not be affected relatively the same.
For some people, having an autistic child could mean absolutely nothing bad, while there are other parents who cannot agree with such statement. It is important to remember that since there are many different types of autism disorder, not every parent of an autistic child deals with the same issues as the other would. Due to all this, my research question is the following, how do parents cope with having an autistic child?
“An autism diagnosis not only changes the life of the child diagnosed, but also that of family members,” says Chloe Paltrow. “Parents of an autistic child have to bear a lot of stress owing to complicated therapy schedules, home treatments, and juggling job responsibilities and family commitments (Chloe Paltrow).” Financial status and other issues can also be a factor affecting a family with an autistic child, says Chloe.
According to Paltrow, families and marriages with an autistic child can grow to be much stronger at times but this would require a lot of support. This passage written by Chloe Paltrow is explaining different ways parents of an autistic child deal with issues because of having an autistic child. Chloe mentions that “along with having to cope with their child being autistic there are many other responsibilities that those same parents have to manage to work through.”
This passage relates to my topic because it addresses how parents with an autistic child have plenty of issues to cover besides providing help for their child with this disorder. Chloe mentions that “not only does the diagnosis of the child affect the child but the rest of the family as well,” supporting my argument that parents go through much more than just trying to help their child.
“A child’s autism diagnosis affects every member of the family in different ways. Parents/caregivers must now place their primary focus on helping their child with ASD, which may put stress on their marriage, other children, work, finances, and personal relationships and responsibilities. Parents now have to shift much of their resources of time and money towards providing treatment and interventions for their child, to the exclusion of other priorities. The needs of a child with ASD complicate familial relationships, especially with siblings.
However, parents can help their family by informing their other children about autism and the complications it introduces, understanding the challenges siblings face and helping them cope, and involving members of the extended family to create a network of help and understanding.” (Autism Society) This passage explains how autism affects both the child diagnosed and the rest of the family. Having an autistic child could also mean that other people involved in his life have an autistic sibling, grandson/granddaughter, friend, cousin, within others.
What this is saying is that if someone close to you has autism it will most likely affect you in some way too. This information supports my thoughts about knowing parents and family being impacted as well by having an autistic child in the family. Many family adjustments are necessary when welcoming an autistic child into the family, whether these adjustments are easy or hard usually depends on how the family works together towards such changes.
My study will be an ethical research study because it will not be conducted as a rushed study which usually leads to unethical research. When conducting my study I will not cause unnecessary harm to any of my participants. I will make sure of getting voluntary consent from any of my participants and never jump into an interview before having their approval to begin.
As I am gathering my information for my research study I will never release any of the information about any of the participants and will show respect towards them at all times. I know that an ethical research may be longer to obtain, or more difficult to work with but it is the right way of conducting a research and it is my responsibility to protect my participants.
Reading through the textbook Understanding Research by Neuman, I came across many different sampling procedures and a variety of samples that can be used. For my particular research my goal is to use non-random sampling, this is because I would like to have an accurate representation of the population.
One of the non-random samples I want to apply on my research is convenience sampling. I will use this type of sample by choosing convenient people to interview. Another sampling option I plan on using is quota sampling. This type of sampling has three different steps, the first is to “identify relevant categories of people or units and have them reflect aspects of diversity in the population. Next, decide how many units to get for each category. After fixing the categories and number of units in each category, select units by any method.” (Neuman pg. 72)
I plan on getting this information from my population which will be all the parents that come into the Alrenwald Theranova Occupational Therapy office. My sample will consist of both female and male parents who walk in to the therapy office. I will pick 10 females and 10 males under a certain age, then again 10 more females and 10 more males of a different age to be able to compare responses from their interviews and obtain better percentages.
The data I will collect from this research will come from surveys, interviews and observation protocol. The surveys I will conduct will have the steps shown in the Understanding Research textbook on page 120. My surveys will follow all 6 steps to get the most accurate answers back from the parents I interview. My data will be consisting of both qualitative and quantitative information. My qualitative will demonstrate reliability by being collected consistently throughout weeks of interacting and observing the parents with an autistic child.
I aspire to conduct an ethical research by using the right resources and methods. My data will be obtained through surveys and interviews and I will make sure my participants feel safe and protected at all times. I will provide both qualitative and quantitative data and demonstrate reliability and validity through my long data collection which will take weeks of work.
