title: Communication difficulties perceived by parents of children with developmental disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The child's inclusion in his/her social-cultural context is very important to his/her adaptation and well-being. The family has a major role as a facilitator of this process. Therefore the difficulties of these families in communicating with children with communication disorders are an important issue to be assessed in order to support orientations to families.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study aimed to identify and compare communication difficulties perceived by parents of children with Down Syndrome (DS), Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Specific Language Impairment (SLI).
  
  
  METHODS
  Information was gathered with the use of a questionnaire with 24 questions regarding the perception of parents about their child communication disorders and the difficulties they identify. The questions were divided into four domains: 1 - Parents' personal difficulties; 2 - Parents' impression about themselves regarding their child; 3 - Parents' impressions about other persons' reactions to their child and 4 - Parents' impression about their child. Sixty parents were the subjects of this study: 20 had children with DS, 20 with SLI and 20 with ASD. All children had ages between 6 and 12 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It was possible to observe that there was significant difference between the parents of ASD children with those of DS and SLI on the second, third and fourth domains.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The questionnaire is effective to the identification of the communication disorders of ASD children based on their parents' reports but not to other developmental disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy, School of Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Ingrid Ya I
authors.initials: IY
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy, School of Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Fernanda Dreux Miranda
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Fernandes
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D002648:Child; D003142:Communication; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D010465:Perception; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires