Promoting Culturally Appropriate Interventions: Lesson Learned From Chinese Immigrant Parents of Children With Autism

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 8:00 a.m. Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Using Mixed Methods Research to Study Cross-Cultural Learning (Table 4)

Abstract

Chinese immigrant families who have children with autism are an underserved and under-researched population in the field of special education in the United States (Chiang, 2014; Xu, 2022). This paper session presents the development and preliminary findings of an explanatory sequential design in mixed methods research (Leko, et al., 2023) which focused on enhancing parental advocacy capacity for this population. Adapted from the Volunteer Advocacy Program (VAP; Burke, et al., 2016), the project involved the target community in the design, implementation, and evaluation phases. Initial analysis revealed that the program was feasible, acceptable, and effective in terms of increasing parental knowledge about special education, advocacy skills, and advocacy activities. The findings inform researchers of program refinement for future implementation.

Authors

• Lei Huang, University of Georgia

• Cynthia O. Vail, University of Georgia