Parenting and supporting children with autism spectrum disorder can be stressful for parents. Additionally, providing effective educational interventions for these children may prove more challenging because of the characteristic behavioural challenges associated with ASD. Whilst there is research relating to parenting children with ASD, there has been none that looked at parenting children with ASD and their educational experiences in Nigeria.
Therefore, this research aimed to explore how parents of children diagnosed with ASD perceived the experience of caring for and educating their children in school. Four fathers and four mothers of children who had been diagnosed with ASD, with experience of mainstream school and specialist school participated in this research. Semi-structured, face to face interviews were carried out with these parents to explore their lived experiences of caring for and supporting children with ASD.
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was the chosen methodological approach. Interview data were transcribed and analysed using IPA guidelines. IPA methodology was utilised to enable an in-depth exploration of parents’ experiences. Four super-ordinate themes and their sub-themes were identified from the data analysis: (1) “a roller coaster of emotions”: the journey to diagnosis, (2) parental resilience, (3) parents challenging relationships with school and, (4) the power of the parental voice. These findings were discussed with regards to the main research question and existing literature and theories.
The study provided a wider understanding of parents’ experiences of children with ASD in Nigeria, and the challenges parents go through in providing effective educational interventions for them. The implications for parents, educators, counsellors, policy makers, wider society and suggestions for future research were also presented.