Arab Educational Information Network

The study aimed to identify the most prominent Counselling needs of families of children with autism in Jeddah, in light of some demographic variables (the child's gender - the child's age - the academic qualification of the child's parents), Following the descriptive comparative approach. The researcher Designed the Indicative Needs Scale for families of children with autism disorder, that consisted of (20) items divided into two categories: dimension of cognitive needs, and the dimension of the need for psychological and social support. And after verifying the Reliability and validity of the measurement tool, The researcher applied it to a random sample of (141) mothers of children with (ASD). The researcher use (SPSS) program for data analysis, following the statistical methods: (means and standard deviations, Mann-Whitney-U test for two independent samples, Kruskal-Wallis test). The results have shown that the counselling needs of families of children with (ASD) were all of a high degree, and the need for information came first. The results of the study also revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in the counselling needs of families of children with autism, due to each of the three demographic variables: (child's gender - age of the child - academic qualification of the child's parents And through the results of the study; The researcher reached a set of proposals and recommendations. (Published abstract)