Grandparents' Sense of Resilience Spending time with Autism Spectrum Disorder Grandchildren (Resiliency and ASD)

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) includes various types of disorders encompasses varying verbal, mental and behavioural severities that affects the functioning of an individual throughout their life. Resilience is perceived as a structure consisting of several defence mechanisms. Resources of resilience stem from personal, biological and environmental mechanisms, or a combination of some or all of these. The objective of this study is to examine the perceptions of grandparents of children on the autism spectrum on the concept of these children's wellbeing experience. By opting for a qualitative method using the narrative approach, we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 grandparents. The interviewees were asked to address the notion of leisure time and to provide examples from their own experiences. Researchers analysed data using inductive content analysis to generate results. The resilience of grandparents is an important resource that must be recognised and harnessed. They have to bounce back to a state of normality following disruptive and often unexpected events or crises. The responses of the grandparents indicate that they need guidance on the subject regarding both the knowledge on the specic subject of autism and the tools that can help foster relationships with the children, parents of the children and the vicinity. There is place to provide tools for grandparents to build their resilience so they can function in the complicated family framework imposed on them. We found that there is a lack of training programs for grandparents and they would have appreciated to get formal education about how to deal or to get along with their ASD grandchildren.