📖 VIEW PROJECT ABSTRACT
Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder in Nigeria often face inadequate professional guidance on effective parenting approaches and bear significant emotional burdens without access to structured support, and professionally designed family counselling programmes are urgently needed. This study designed a family counselling programme for parents of children with ASD in Lagos State, South West Nigeria. A programme design approach was adopted, drawing on ASD parenting research, behavioural family intervention models, and consultations with 30 parents of children with ASD and 12 ASD specialist practitioners in Lagos. Consultations identified parental stress and grief around the ASD diagnosis, inadequate behaviour management skills, communication support needs, sibling relationship management, and school liaison challenges as the five highest-priority support areas. The programme designed comprises ten fortnightly group sessions, each addressing one priority area through a combination of psychoeducation, skills demonstration, practice, peer sharing, and home practice assignment. Individual family consultation sessions are built into the programme at commencement and mid-point. Facilitator training guidelines and session materials are adapted for Nigerian ASD family contexts, incorporating cultural factors around disability acceptance and the Lagos education and health service landscape. Expert review by eight ASD specialists and family counsellors confirmed the programme's clinical relevance and cultural fit. The study recommends piloting at two ASD intervention centres in Lagos and partnering with the Autism Friendly Nigeria Initiative for wider dissemination.
Keywords: family counselling, autism spectrum disorder, parents, Lagos State, ASD parenting programme
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