In my master's thesis the mail guidance was to explore the life of a family with a child with autism, and how their life patterns have changed over the years. Firstly I explained some concepts such as autism spectrum disorders, forms of autism spectrum disorders, social exclusion, a child's voice and their advocacy. I continued to define the position of children with autism in Slovenia, social work with the family of a child with autism and the forms of assistance that are available to children and their families. The thesis covers a group of women in the Carinthia region aged between 30 to 56 and have a child with autism spectrum disorder. In my research, I focused on the family's life with a child with autism spectrum disorder. One of the main findings is that parents are overburdened with work, their children with ASD and the family, and that they do not have enough knowledge and enough free therapies to make their and their children's lives easier. Caring for a child with autism requires a lot of adjustments, so this pattern can lead to the loss of the social network, overburdening, burnouts, etc. A proposal that would make life easier for the parent would be the introduction of free therapies available in the local environment, a regular companion of the child who can also be a volunteer and a personal assistant in the future. It would also help them to be accepted better in their surroundings, which could be achieved by raising people's awareness about autism spectrum disorders.
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