could more be done to support parents of autistic children?

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Please vote in my poll, this will be the foundation of a hypothesis for an undergraduate piece of research into autism and the quality of support available

if you would also like to express your own opinions and share your own experiences that would also be great, this will not be used in the research

Thank You

What about support for adults on the spectrum?

I'm a person with autism rather than an a parent of a child with autism, but I'm going to weigh in anyway:

Whatever level of support parents of children with autism receive, it's more support than adults with autism receive.

There's nothing wrong with your idea, in my opinion - but autistic children and their parents receive the bulk of support from government, charities, etc. - everything. There is nothing wrong with the direction you are going, I'm just saying that if you want to do research on an aspect of autism support that could use some improvement, it would definitely be support for adults with autism. It's as if the world thinks we vanish after we become adults.

i really wish i could do research on adults with autism and the support they get because it does seem unfair that you dont get the support you need..

my only problem is, i would find it difficult to conduct an interview study with an autistic adult because i dont actually know any adults who are autistic. my little cousin has recently been diagnosed so he will be what i base my research on and my aunty and uncle will essentially be the ones who i interview on their experiences!

my rational for this study hopefully will be that more could be done to support parents of autistic children.. but this is why ive done a poll, because if there is already adequate support available then my research will be dismissed on the grounds that its not beneficial, there isnt a rational and the research generally doesn't need to be conducted

i really do hope that you are getting support though and who knows.. maybe i will conduct research into adults with autism one day!

how would i go around doing that? Im conducting the research in Leeds, UK from September!

Leeds? My father lives in Leeds! I used to visit him in the summer. We'd go to the park to see The Who on Saturdays. >_>

Anyone who gets that reference is AWESOME.

Seriously, though, we have a several members in the UK, and my American brain refuses to accept not being able to cross a country smaller than most states for academic research. =P

BTW I voted I am happy just so I could see results.

As someone who grew up before anyone knew what AS was I'd have to say that parental support (support for my parents, not support for me from my parents) would have been a 'game changer' for me. My parents had absolutely no idea what to do with me. They ended up going the tough love route because they thought my behavior was due to me just being a bad kid. They didn't understand that I did things out of frustration and I had no way of communicating my feelings even though I spoke reasonably well. The gave me rules without understanding that my brain just short circuited if I was told to follow rules without their purpose and benefit being defined. I'm all for more resources for parents, even if it's just information being more available. The problem with resources is that there seems to be some battle going on between LFA and HFA parents over them. It's sad to see parents of kids on the spectrum fighting for the scraps they're thrown instead of demanding everyone gets help. "My kid is more f****d up than your kid".