Automatically generated rough PDF by ProofCheck from River Valley Technologies Ltd DE GRUYTER Multicultural Learning and Teaching. 2018; 20160010 Brenda L. Barrio 1 / Yun-Ju Hsiao 2 / Nydia Prishker 3 / Callie Terry 3 The Impact of Culture on Parental Perceptions about Autism Spectrum Disorders: Striving for Culturally Competent Practices 1 Washington State University, Cleveland 334 PO Box 642114, Pullman, WA 99164, USA, E-mail: brenda.barrio@wsu.edu 2 Washington State University Tri-Cities, Richland, WA 99354, USA 3 University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA Abstract: Despite the increasing number of children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) backgrounds in the United States, limited research exists synthesizing what is known about the prevalence and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in these communities. Children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are disproportionately diagnosed with ASD and, there is a need for practitioners and educa- tors to be culturally competent at addressing challenges and practices related to ASD for children and youth. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature related to parental perspectives on ASD, in children from a wide range of culturally diverse backgrounds to provide information and resources to practitioners about the importance to strive for cultural competence in practice-related work. Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, multicultural issues, parent perceptions, cultural competency DOI: 10.1515/mlt-2016-0010 Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often characterized by “challenges in social interactions and communication skills, and by the presence of repetitive behaviors and restricted interests” (Davidson & Henderson, 2010, p. 463). Additionally, children with ASD are often distinguished from their peers in their greater likelihood of engaging in what many consider to be problem behaviors (Macintosh & Dissanayake, 2006). There is a current trend in society to classify individuals with ASD according to characteristics they exhibit that are non-conforming to “normalized” characteristics in society. Davidson (2008) points out how expert accounts of ASD often perpetuate stereotypes, effectively denying a voice to these individuals. Advocates for ASD tend to use a social model of disability, where disabilities are described, in large part, as resulting from society’s intolerance of human differences, rather than a medical model that describes disability regarding of a person’s physical and cognitive deficits (Silverman, 2011). Many individuals with ASD struggle with the experience of not belonging (Kapp et al., 2013). Also, diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds could add to the perplexity of what individuals with ASD experience, in particular, how practitioners from a dominant culture could perceive or misunderstand cultural differences due to the lack of cultural competency. Need forpractitioners and educators to be culturally competent regarding their treatments and practices for children and youth with ASD continues to exist (Ravindran & Myers, 2012). The objective of this paper is to review the history and the literature of practices for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with ASD as well as generate knowledge related to parental perceptions of ASD from a wide range of cultural diverse backgrounds in order to provide encouragement to practitioners and researchers to strive for cultural competence in their practice. Multicultural aspects of ASD Estimates in recent years have demonstrated that ASD is more common than it has been thought. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about one in 59 children have been diagnosed with ASD (CDC, 2018). ASD is prevalent in all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, but it is well known that the disorder is more common among boys than girls (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014)). There is also a wide variation of first diagnosis across different racial and ethnic groups. For example, studies have shown that the prevalence of ASD among Hispanic/Latinx children is lower than the prevalence of ASD for non-Hispanic/Latinx children (Morrier & Hess, 2010; Morrier, Hess & Heflin, 2008; Palmer et al., 2010; Travers, Tincani & Krezmien, 2011). Brenda L. Barrio is the corresponding author. © 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston. 1 Brought to you by | University of Groningen Authenticated Download Date | 5/21/18 6:04 AM