Ramkumar

Abstract

The general purpose of this study was to investigate on the physical and psychological impact of children with autism disorder on family household and the strategies that could be used to improve or identify the coping strategy for the family and involve more effectively in the child’s development and education. the study had five objectives, namely, to establish how the child diagnoses ASD causes relationship conflicts within the parents, to examine does ASD affects the well-being of the mother greater than other member of the family, to evaluate how ASD impact on the psychological well-being of the siblings living, to examine how the sigma affects the parenting responsibilities in the upbringing a child in Kenya diagnosed with as and to establish how the learning of the autistic child affected by the parenting stress. In order to achieve the objectives of this research, samples were collected randomly from family members affected by as and questionnaire filled to obtain data. The findings indicated that mothers’ social life especially their daily routines are affected due to autistic children. It is accepted therefore that that autism has caused stress in their marital relationship as well as affecting relationship with other children. The findings also conclude that siblings get depressed due to autistic nature of their sibling. Moreover, when parents are highly stressed, they may fear allowing their child to go to school. This affects learning and development of behaviour with their peers. Finally, parents with autistic children have never knew what autism is as well as the cause for their child’s condition. This has been left to be explained in terms of taboo, stigma and speculations. The study recommends that mothers with autistic children should undertake formal training in order to learn nature of therapies necessary for their children. Moreover, autistic children should not be isolated but rather be integrated with other siblings in order to learn appropriate communication and life skills. Furthermore, the government through education should organize training programs geared towards eradicating

stigma ad taboo related to children with autism. Finally, the education providers should provide the autistic children with a conducive learning environment