Examination of Canadian parents' awareness of early intervention supports for their child diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder : a co-cultural perspective

Abstract

Using co-cultural theory, this study compares how a sample of parents in Canada perceive what early intervention supports are available for their child diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants consisted of parents of children diagnosed with ASD whom were six years old or younger. Through mixed method design and a co-cultural communication theory lens, nine parents who fit participation criteria answered a self-report questionnaire. Two major findings are (1) parents did not equally perceive availability of early intervention supports; (2) word of mouth is a predominant way for parents to become informed of early intervention services. Demonstrated through the data, the participants engage in multiple communication strategies. These results open the potential to investigate further into how funding agencies can utilize word of mouth methods of communicating to ensure correct information is disseminated to the parents regarding early intervention.