Abstract

All parents want their children to be healthy physically, mentally, religiously, and socially. However, some children may not achieve this ideal development, especially those with physical or psychological limitations. Children with special needs, such as those with autism, often require special education. Parents may struggle to accept their child's condition if there is a mismatch between expectations and reality. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of reality counseling in improving parents' acceptance of children with autism. Reality counseling helps parents accept the reality that their child has autism in a rational and healthy way. This study is designed as a quasi-experiment using a pre-test and post-test approach. In this study, five parents of children with autism were purposively selected. The results show that after reality counseling, parents' acceptance of their child's condition significantly improved, with an average increase of 14.8 points and a p-value of < 0.05. This indicates that reality counseling can help parents accept their child's condition. It can help them better understand autism and improve the emotional bond between parents and children. The results of this study are expected to help support parents' acceptance of children with special needs, especially those with autism.

Keywords:

[Reality Counseling; Parental Acceptance;Autism]

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