Interaction between Mothers and Children with Autism

Abstract

Aim: To investigates interaction of Telugu mothers with their Autistic children in the city of Hyderabad, India.

Method: This study consists of 30 mother- child dyads. Among them (mothers) 19 mothers participated in both audio and video tasks, whereas 11 mothers only had audio recording task. Their age range was 25-45 and educational qualification range from intermediate to post graduate. Out of 30 mothers, 14 were trained in applied behaviour analysis (ABA). The Autistic children were assessed and diagnosed on the basis of ADOS (autism diagnostic observation schedule).

Results and Discussion: Speech and Interaction of Telugu speaking mothers with their Autistic children reflected deficiencies to a larger extent. Autistic mothers used relatively more simple sentences than compound. Most Autistic mothers took very less turns during interaction and no reciprocal turns were generated from Autistic children.

Summary and Conclusion: Very significant number of mothers of Autistic children used proximal pointing during their communication with their words. Majority of mothers had very low rate of speech in both audio and video tasks. Very few mothers had high rate of speech. Autistic mothers were very balanced in their conversation with their wards (children’s) i.e. neither less demanding nor more demanding in conversation.