Background The study explores the experiences of parents of individuals with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), and examines the influences of parent gender and child age on perceived stress, stress and coping, child-rearing involvement, support and information ⁄ education accessed. Methods and Materials Questionnaires assessed general perceived stress, involvement, stress and coping related to caregiving, social support, and amount of information ⁄ education accessed in 23 mothers and 19 fathers of 3-to 18-year-old individuals with ASDs. Results When compared with fathers, mothers were significantly more stressed, more involved, and reported higher levels of stress and coping related to caregiving. Differences were found according to child age, regarding helpfulness of support and access to information ⁄ education. Parent gender and child age moderated correlations between some variables. Content analyses identified factors contributing to parental stress and its alleviation. Conclusions The positive relationships between the amount of information accessed and the quality of support received by parents, and between parental stress and involvement vary according to the life stage of the child. Mothers experienced a greater caregiving burden when compared with fathers.Keywords: autistic spectrum disorder, information, involvement, parent, stress, support IntroductionAccording to Randall & Parker (1999), of all childhood developmental disabilities, autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) give rise to one of the most complex network of family stressors. A substantial amount of research on stress and parents of children with ASDs has found that these parents experience higher levels of stress than both the general population and parents of children with other developmental disabilities (McKinney & Peterson 1987;Weiss 2002). Providing effective and relevant support to these parents is critical; thus, factors that influence their mental health and stress levels must be explored.According to Lazarus & Folkman (1984), parents' coping strategies are related to the resources to which they have access. Without these resources, parents are vulnerable and more likely to be stressed. Social support is an important moderator of stress for parents of children with ASDs, as support can help parents cope by meeting their emotional, practical and informational needs (Beresford 1994). Schilling et al. (1984) identified two sources of social support: informal (e.g. family) and formal (e.g. health professionals). The perceived helpfulness of support has been shown to be an important aspect of its mitigating affect (Henderson & Vandenberg 1992). A study by Hastings & Johnson (2001) explored the issues of stress, coping and support in 141 UK parents conducting intensive home-based behavioural intervention with their children with autism. Although no comparative difference was found in the level of reported stress between parents utilizing the programme and other parents of children with autism, the research did find that adaptive coping st...

Interventions for children with autism based upon Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) has been repeatedly shown to be related both to educational gains and to reductions in challenging behaviours. However, to date, comprehensive training in ABA for teachers and others have been limited. Over 7 months, 11 teachers undertook 90 hours of classroom instruction and supervision in ABA. Each teacher conducted a comprehensive functional assessment and designed a behaviour support plan targeting one behaviour for one child with an autistic disorder. Target behaviours included aggression, non-compliance and specific educational skills. Teachers recorded observational data for the target behaviour for both baseline and intervention sessions. Support plans produced an average 80 percent change in frequency of occurrence of target behaviours. Questionnaires completed by parents and teachers at the end of the course indicated a beneficial effect for the children and the educational environment. The potential benefits of teacher implemented behavioural intervention are discussed.

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A case study design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioural consultation as a method for improving the social skills of adolescents with Asperger's syndrome. Two case studies were conducted. In each study, two teachers implemented a social skills programme with two to three adolescents with Asperger's syndrome in a group setting with typical peers following behavioural consultation. Results from norm‐referenced measures of social skills produced statistically reliable and clinically meaningful changes in teachers' perceptions of target social skills following the intervention in both studies. These gains showed only moderate generalisation to the home setting, though qualitative data suggested that at least some gains had been noticed by parents. Teachers indicated high levels of treatment acceptability and satisfaction with the consultation service, and expressed the intention to implement the programme again in the future. The findings are discussed in light of important methodological limitations; however, they lend support to the hypothesis that behavioural consultation is an acceptable and effective model of service delivery for supporting the social skills needs of students with Asperger's syndrome.

As part of a larger study regarding the inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream classroom settings, Ellen Murphy, of the D Clin Psych programme at NUI Galway, with Ian Grey and Rita Honan, from Trinity College, Dublin, reviewed existing literature on co‐operative learning in the classroom. In this article, they identify four models of co‐operative learning and specify the various components characteristic of each model. They review recent studies on co‐operative learning with the aim of determining effectiveness. These studies generally indicate that co‐operative learning appears to be more effective when assessed on measures of social engagement rather than academic performance. Finally, Ellen Murphy, Ian Grey and Rita Honan present their account of the factors that contribute to the successful implementation of co‐operative learning for students with difficulties in learning.