Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a collection of developmental abnormalities that can lead to significant social, communicative, and behavioral challenges. A nurse is critical in establishing a parent's level of autism awareness and coping skills. Our purpose was to evaluate how a parenting program for mothers influenced their ability to manage with autistic children. Quasi-interventional research, before and after the program was done. A total of 70 mothers of autistic children were enrolled in Khartoum State's five autism centers. The Short Form Parenting Stress Index (PSI-SF) was used to measure the level of stress and burden experienced by mothers caring for children with autism. The study showed that 31.4% of mothers had a good score in physical care skills before the intervention and 50.0% after the intervention. The mean scores of stresses pre-training 134.48 decreased to 64.1 post training program. In the pre-training program 42.90% of the mothers used problem focus coping strategy and the post-training program represented 92.85%. The educational health and counseling program played an important role in improving mothers' ability to cope with their autistic children.
Key words: health counseling, health education, autistic children, autism, Sudan.
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