An Investigation Of Care-related Challenges Experienced by Children with Autism in Selected Special Children’s Centre in Nairobi County

Abstract

Autism is a widely misunderstood developmental disability that is generally diagnosed in early childhood. There has been a noted improvement in diagnosing and intervention option for children with the condition. However, the attention placed on it is inadequate. This study investigated care-related challenges experienced by children with autism in selected special children centre in Nairobi County. The objectives of the study were to find out the type of care given to children with autism, to examine the possible challenges faced in providing care to children with autism, to assess the level of awareness of autism, and establish possible ways of alleviate the challenges children with autism face in the selected school. The data was collected from 30 caregivers at Jacaranda Special Needs Centre using census sampling method. The researcher used descriptive research design. To collect the required data the researcher used questionnaire and the collected data was edited, categorized in relation to objectives of the study and analyzed systematically descriptive statistics namely frequency and percentages were used to analyze the data and present the result. The key findings in this research were that children with autism were greatly affected by the unstructured learning environment. The study concluded that inability to prepare a structured learning environment was the biggest challenge experienced by children with autism.