This thesis investigates the experience that parents whose children have autism spectrum disorder have had with the specialists from different institutions and organizations, with whom they have had interactions during child’s guidance and treatment. In the theoretical part, I defined some key concepts connected with the autism spectrum disorder. I presented the process of diagnosis, treatment and guidance of the children with the disorder, and the specialists, with whom a child and parents meet during this process. I focused on parents’ rights and responsibilities and exposed how the official documents, covering the guidance of the children with special needs, define the integration and collaboration with parents as partners. From the perspective of comprehensive approach to the treatment, I disclosed a few types of help and support that the specialists can realise in the collaboration with the parents. I originated from the core concepts of social pedagogical realization that are the ethic of participation and strengths perspective. Moreover, I introduced an overview of some researches, covering the topic, that had already been done in international and Slovene environment. In the empirical part, based on a selected sample, I investigated the experience of parents whose children have autism spectrum disorder, by collaborating with different specialists. I used qualitative research method in my investigation. The conclusions were that in most cases, the parents are excluded from the guidance and treatment processes and overlooked as the experts by experience. Too often, they do not recognize parents’ needs, depriving them of information, support and help. Generally, the parents manifested unpleasant experiences and dissatisfaction with social workers. The research put in focus two major needs: making both professionals and lay public aware about the subject and assigning qualified attendants to all children with autism spectrum disorder.
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