Abstract

SEMENSATO, Márcia Rejane  and  BOSA, Cleonice Alves. Parental beliefs about autism and it’s evolution in the diagnostic communication process. Pensando fam. [online]. 2014, vol.18, n.2, pp. 93-107. ISSN 1679-494X.

This study investigated the parental beliefs about the son's autism in the diagnostic communication period. The communication of the diagnosis was performed in a process which lasted four months in interviews later analised by Content Analysis. During this process the parents received information about the evaluation, the diagnosis, the possibilities of interventions, etc. They also were able to atribute meaning to the information they received from the professionals as well discuss their beliefs about this information and their observations during the diagnostic evaluation. The results of this study corroborate the importance of research of parental beliefs for child care and family programs. In addition, parental beliefs were important for the understanding of the elaboration process of the diagnosis that parents experience. This research also emphasized the importance of the diagnostic communication as a process not restricted to an informative interview.

Keywords : Beliefs; Parental beliefs; Autism.

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