Socio-psychological principles of the research on parental competence in educating children with autism
Abstract
The purpose of the article is the theoretical substantiation of the concept of parental competence of parents of children with autism, and the definition of the conceptual principles of its research. Despite the annual increase in the number of people with autism, the problem of children with autism support in Ukraine and in the world has not received sufficient scientific reflection, in particular – the little is known about the methods of effective influence on the level of competence of parents of children and adolescents with autism and on optimization of social communication of parents on micro- and the macro level. Parents who raise children with disabilities (in the conditions of transformation of parental functions) face the additional problems in comparison with parents of standard-type children. Parental competence, in its modern sense, is characterized by the ability of the parent to perform parental functions in such a way which promotes the positive direction of the physical, mental, emotional, speech, communicative, etc. development of a child, including the condition where the parent has sufficient quality of his/her own life. The main question of the research is what kind of parenting behavior and which parent’s socio-psychological characteristics provide a positive direction for the development of a child with autism, and how the social environment at the micro-level (family, teachers, friends, acquaintances) and at the macro-level (civil society organizations, state organizations and services, public authorities) of social communication affect this ability. The article reveals the socio-psychological model of systemic support for parents of children with autism at the level of civil society; the model of parenting competence in the education of children with autism (based on the substructures of the personality in the socio-psychological-individual and the activity’s dimensions of the psychological structure of the personality by V. Rybalka) and a scheme for measuring its indicators. The structure of the study program for support of competent parenting of parents of children with autism is described. The fundamental researches on parental practices with children with autism, the identification of relationships between children and parental characteristics, and parenting characteristics with the level of parenting competence, will help to build a scientifically-based system for promoting competent parenting of autistic children’s parents, to increase the level and quality of interaction between parents and educational staff of rehabilitation institutions which work with children with autism, to promote the withdrawal of programs for competent support for autistic children’s parents on the level of municipal support programs for parents of children with disabilities, and to promote the implementation of programs of parents’ support in the general protocols of intervention, care and support of autistic person
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