Tatyana В. Salamatina

The problem of support for parents raising a child with autism spectrum disorders is relevant due to their determining role in establishing contacts with the world around the child and, at the same time, significant difficulties that hinder the successful realization of parents' educational functions. Among such difficulties there are negative psychological experiences of parents (fear, anxiety, stress), lack of necessary information regarding the specifics of educational tasks, negative educational experience, as well as social rejection of the child and his/her family. Due to the above, the fulfillment of the educational function by parents becomes much more complicated, and parenting is qualified in the psychological and pedagogical sense as "special". The purpose of the research presented in the article is to substantiate, develop and test the author's original means of fostering informed parenting in mothers raising children with autism spectrum disorders – pedagogical game "Understand me", which provides understanding of the child's specific difficulties; acceptance of the role of a parent of a child with ASD; development of an effective program of actions in various educational situations. The leading methods of researching the problem were a survey of mothers bringing up children with autism spectrum disorders 4-13 years old using the developed questionnaire, and the formative experiment involving game meetings. As a result of the study, the effectiveness of the developed pedagogical game has been demonstrated in terms of mothers' emotional and informational support, acquisition of effective child-rearing techniques and positive contacts with the social environment. Positive effects of trial testing of the pedagogical game, along with satisfaction with the proposed activity and the desire to continue it, also confirms the establishment of new productive contacts by mothers, reflection of their educational experience, the opportunity to take a new look at educational problems, increasing the objectivity of ideas about their child and themselves; manifestation of optimism; finding answers to important questions. Theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that its results enrich scientific ideas about the potential of pedagogical game as a means of fostering informed parenting in families raising children with autism spectrum disorders. In practical terms, the developed pedagogical game can be used for psychological and pedagogical support of these children parents.