ASSISTANCE TO FAMILIES RAISING CHILDREN WITH EARLY CHILDHOOD AUTISM

Abstract. The article highlights the problems of psychological and pedagogical support of parents raising children with early childhood autism.

Keywords: early childhood autism, assistance, developmental features, parents.

Early childhood autism is a fairly common phenomenon, it occurs no less often than other serious mental disorders. Unfortunately, this particular disorder of mental development has been little studied by specialists. Often, families with autistic children have not been able to get professional help for many years. Often parents are forced to fight for your child without any professional help and support.

In recent years, specialists have begun to devote more time to the problem of studying and correcting various mental disorders in children. A lot of different literature has appeared on issues of mental retardation, deviations in behavior and communication, learning and upbringing disorders. But still, not all questions can be studied to the end.

At the moment, there is an increase in the number of children diagnosed with early childhood autism (hereinafter – RDA) in the world. Currently in everything, there are more than 10 million people with autism in the world. In recent decades, the statistics of this disease has only been growing. Every year

, there are 11-17% more people with autism.

The birth of a child with developmental disabilities can cause severe psychological stress for parents not only because of the changes that are coming to them, but also as a result of false expectations of the born a child.

There are very diverse reactions among parents to a child's diagnosis, they may be depressed, puzzled by the child's isolation and often fall into despair. They can deny to the last that their child has developmental disabilities, or they will immediately accept this fact and will raise such a child as a healthy baby. Parents of such children may have a breakdown of marital relations, against the background of constant worries; parents may have depression and a constant feeling of loneliness.  Also, when such a child appears, thoughts immediately arise

about his future and his own.

With the appearance of a child in the family in the RDA, parents need help and support of various types (psychological, pedagogical), because not all parents can cope with a child with such diagnoses on their own. The possibility of such assistance will give parents confidence in their abilities, will not allow them to close in on the child's illness, will help to socialize the child, will prompt the correct methods of education.

Working with the parents of an autistic child is a very important stage. The family of a child with autism is often deprived of the support of acquaintances, and sometimes even close people. Relatives and friends who have learned about the diagnosis of the baby are moving away from the family, passers-by look with a condemning look, people in public places whisper and look askance.

There are a number of special studies that help determine the difficulties of a family with an autistic child, describing the impact such a child has on each family member. Adaptive capabilities in general are also investigated and special scales are proposed to assess the interaction between a child and parents.

At the initial stages of psychological support, the following areas of parental support will be most relevant:

- assistance in making a diagnosis;

- explaining to the child's relatives about the peculiarities of his development;

- providing parents with information about their child's needs;

- basic recommendations for everyday life and everyday life with a child;

- assistance and training of parents in mastering special techniques and  methods of interaction with the child;

The most important task in working with parents of children with early childhood autism is to find strength, support and opportunities for establishing emotional contact with their child.

Helping a family with a child with early childhood autism is an important factor for such a family. Basically, great success depends on the cohesion of the family, on its involvement in the family problems of each of them family members, on what kind of family gives a chance to an autistic child that his development will move forward, on what kind of psychological and social support the family will receive. The main types of assistance to families with autistic children are psychotherapy of each family member, familiarization of parents with the psychological characteristics of their child, drawing up an individual program for the upbringing and education of a child with early childhood autism in the home environment.

Properly organized work with families with children with early childhood autism has a positive effect on harmonization interpersonal relations between the child and family members, as well as the formation of skills of adequate communication of the child with others.