“What is early intervention? I had no idea”: Chinese parents’ experiences of early supports for their autistic children in Australia

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Smith, J., Aulich, A., Bent, C. A., Constantine, C., Franks, K., Goonetilleke, N., Green, C. C., Lee, P., Ma, E., Said, H., Wang, R., Wood, S., & Hudry, K. (2023). “What is early intervention? I had no idea”: Chinese parents’ experiences of early supports for their autistic children in Australia. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 108, 102227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2023.102227

Publication date: 29 Aug 2023 Added to AutiHub: 14 Sep 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
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Authors

Publication authors
13
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 13 (7.7%)
  1. Jodie Smith
  2. Alexandra Aulich
  3. Catherine A. Bent
  4. Christos Constantine *
  5. Kathleen Franks
  1. Nilushi Goonetilleke
  2. Cherie C. Green
  3. Patricia Lee
  4. Emily Ma
  5. Helen Said
  1. Rena Wang
  2. Sarah Wood
  3. Kristelle Hudry

Abstract

Parents should be central to early supports for their autistic children, with parent involvement in and satisfaction with supports influencing child outcomes. Migrant parents likely experience different barriers to navigating and participating in early supports for their autistic children, but we have limited data here. Through a community-partnered participatory approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 19 migrant Chinese parents of autistic children about their experiences of the diagnosis and early intervention (EI) process. Interviews were conducted in home languages by other parents. We analysed data using reflexive thematic analysis. Parents described myriad obstacles to accessing early supports with many related to being a Chinese migrant in Australia. Parents reported difficulties accepting their children’s differences, faced language barriers, experienced stigmatisation/discrimination, and had limited knowledge of autism supports/systems. Funding issues, limited availability of supports and poorly coordinated services were additional challenges. Parents described having little choice and control over supports, often unable to access culturally-specific services. Nonetheless, parents explained how dedicated they were to their children and effectively utilised informal networks to better access supports for themselves and their children. Accessing EI gave parents hope, providing them with specific goals and strategies. It is recommended that professionals clearly communicate with migrant parents about autism and available post-diagnostic autism services/supports, including how to access these. Connecting parents with informal, community-specific services should especially be considered for migrant families. We recommend other potentially useful adaptations to better support migrant Chinese parents in navigating early supports for their autistic children.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 20 Sep 2026 01:01.

Cited references
51
With a DOI
46
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
5
7 / 51 (13.7%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
5 / 51 (9.8%)
References with detected author names
46 / 51 (90.2%)
Without detected author names
5
Without a structured title
5
Without a stable identifier
5
References with raw author names still to review
5
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
219
From DOI or external metadata
219
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
8
115 / 219 (52.5%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 104 / 219 (47.5%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
13 / 219 (5.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 13 / 115 (11.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 6 / 187 (3.2%).
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