THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY ON THE STRESS LEVEL OF PARENTS OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN

A recent survey by the American Psychological Association (2020) shows that parents have a stress level of 6.7 out of 10 compared to that of 5.5 for single adults. Also, anxiety among parents of autistic children is nearly twice that of parents of mainstream children (Padden & James, 2017). There have been many suggested antidotes to stress including therapy and medication. However, there has been some preliminary evidence that creative projects can reduce stress-related symptoms (Lewis, 2016). The following study was an attempt to determine if an educational app that has been shown to increase independence with autistic children would reduce stress among parents as compared to group therapy and a control group. The setting was the homes of autistic children with an average of 9.1 years of age. Thirty children (22 males, 8 females) had previously participated in a study involving the iCAN educational appor used a traditional worksheet educational platform. Parents were given a stress survey before and after this study with 46 parents participating (28 female, 18 male) with an average age of 34.2 years. The children and the parents were then randomly assigned to either a traditional worksheet instructional group or an app educational group. Both groups of parents and children received a single one week instruction by certified instructors via the web and parents were guided by behaviorists on how to train their children using the materials.