The Impact of Psychoeducation on Healthy Diet in Children with ASD during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract


 
 
 Covid-19 has created new habits in society, including for parents of children on the autistic spectrum. Parents become less confident in food that is processed outside the home, however Gluten Free Casein Free (GFCF) food ingredients which can be beneficial for children on the autistic spectrum, can be acquired and prepared at home. This research is an experimental study using One Group Pre-Test Post-Test and sample selection of purposive sampling technique. There were 3 people who consented to be the subject of this study. The instrument used was the comprehension instrument which consisted of 3 aspects: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. There was also a control table for the application of the healthy diet to children to validate the consistency of parents in adopting a healthy diet after receiving psychoeducation. The analysis technique used the Mann-Whitney with the results showing a significance of 0.046 (p <0.05), which means that there is a different in the score between the pre-test and post-test results in the subject group. The results show that a GFCF diet education improves parental understanding of the healthy diet of Children with ASD.
 Keywords: parents of children with autism spectrum disorder, psychoeducation, understanding healthy diet