Introduction: Language and speech disorders can negatively affect children's communication skills and social relationships. Parental attitudes play a significant role in children's language development.
Objective: The aim of this study is to identify the parenting attitudes exhibited by parents of children with language and speech disorders and to evaluate the effects of these attitudes on children's development.
Method: The study is based on interviews conducted with the parents of 120 children aged 4-6 years who were diagnosed with developmental language disorder, speech sound disorder, autism spectrum disorder, or fluency disorder. Data were collected using the Parental Attitude Scale (PAS) and analyzed using one-way ANOVA in the SPSS-27 program.
Results: Democratic and permissive parenting attitudes showed significant differences based on the type of disorder. Overprotective attitudes were found to be highest among parents of children with autism, while democratic attitudes were lower compared to other groups. Additionally, permissive attitudes were relatively high in this group. No significant differences were observed between groups in terms of authoritarian attitudes. In the developmental language disorder, speech sound disorder, and fluency disorder groups, democratic attitudes were found to be dominant. These findings suggest that the type of disorder may influence how parents approach their children.
Conclusion: Types of language and speech disorders affect parenting attitudes. The predominance of overprotective attitudes among parents of children with autism highlights the need for supportive interventions for these families. Future studies with larger and more diverse samples are expected to enhance the generalizability of the findings.
authoritarian parenting, democratic parenting, overprotective parenting, parenting attitudes, permissive parenting, speech and language disorders
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