Communication difficulties perceived by mothers of children with suspected autism spectrum disorder during social distancing

Abstract

Purpose: to characterize the perception of mothers of children at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder about their children's communicative difficulties, and to investigate possible changes after intervention based on brief guidance by telemonitoring. Methods: eight mothers of children aged 32 to 45 months with suspected Autism Spectrum Disorder undergoing diagnostic investigation participated. The Communicative Difficulties Questionnaire was used, applied before and after intervention based on a brief telemonitoring guidance. The inferential analysis used the Wilcoxon rank test, at a significance level of 5%. Results: comparison between the two moments did not indicate statistically significant difference. However, there were changes in qualitative analysis. In domain 1, a change in mode was observed in two questions. Initially, in domain 2, a disagreeing mode was seen, which after the intervention evolved to agreeing about the feeling of other people avoiding/bullying their children. In domain 3, the question “I take all objects that my child points to” changed from agreeing to disagreeing (62.5% to 25%), and the question “I can't teach my child new things” had no change in mode, only a reduction of agreement (50% to 25%). In domain 4, there was a reduction in agreement, with no change in mode. Conclusions: the mothers perceived communicative difficulties and daily challenges in dealing with their children. Despite the lack of a statistical difference, qualitatively subtle changes were observed in the perceptions of difficulties, after the intervention.