Knowledge and attitude of Mothers and Health Care Professional related to Autistic Children

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University

2 Lecturer of Pediatric Nursing Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University

Abstract

The increase in reported Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) prevalence may reflect greater increased awareness of ASD among professionals and the mothers'. Therefore, it is important that there is awareness and accurate understanding of ASD which can help individuals with ASD to be identified and receive appropriate supports as early as possible. The aim of the study was to assess Knowledge and attitude of mothers and Health Care Professional toward Autistic Children. A descriptive exploratory research design was utilized. This study was conducted at the Abassia mental health hospital, outpatient clinic of autism and psychiatric clinic at pediatric out- patient clinic pediatric hospital of Cairo University. A convenient sample consists of (55) 40 mothers' and 15 health care professionals were working in outpatient clinics in the previous settings. Three tools were used to collect the data for the present study. personal data sheet for mothers and their autistic children , and health care professional, Mothers knowledge and attitude toward autistic child questionnaire and Health professional' knowledge and attitude toward autistic child questionnaire. Study's results revealed that most of mothers' had positive attitude toward their autistic children regarding their role in care and effectiveness of treatment with no significant difference between mothers' and Health care professional in total attitude scores. On the other hand there was statistical significant difference between mothers' and health professionals in total knowledge scores. The study concluded that, the issue of knowledge and attitude toward child with autism and perceptions regarding their abilities to be included in the community are complex. The study recommended that need for further researches in order to find out the most effective way to induce positive changes in this area, and how treatment decisions are made particularly with regard to the importance of mothers' attitude.

Keywords