Abstract
This paper has examined the perceptions and experiences of parents in offering learning support to primary school students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a public special school in Pretoria, South Africa. The research is based on the Ecological Systems Theory developed by Bronfenbrenner and examined the way parents comprehend ASD, what strategies they utilize to facilitate the learning of their children at home, and what challenges and needs might influence their participation in the inclusive education. The research design used was qualitative one in which semi-structured in-depth interviews, collages and narrative reflections have been used to gather data. The participants of the study were four parents of children with ASD, who could share their lived experience. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data based on the six-stage model proposed by Braun and Clarke.
The results indicated that there were four major themes which included the parental knowledge towards ASD; the home-based learning support strategies; the lived experiences of raising a child with ASD and the needs of the parents that could facilitate effective support. Parents were found to be very committed, resilient and flexible and applied visuals, rigid schedules and emotional aids to aid the learning of their children. Nevertheless, the challenges that were recognized in the study are as well as limited training, poor collaboration of schools, and access to special resources. The paper ends by concluding that proper home-school collaboration and parent empowerment interventions are the keys to facilitating effective inclusion of students with ASD. Recommendations include strengthening communication between schools and families, providing parent training on ASD-specific learning strategies, and improving policy implementation in full-service schools.