Perspectives on the support for Grandparents of Children with Disabilities

Grandparents are important sources of support for families of children with disabilities. However, professional supports are necessary for grandparents to be good supporters for those families. In contrast, there is limited studies which target to the grandparents of children with disabilities, particularly in Japan. The present paper tried to grasp the trends in the practice of support for those grandparents and to investigate the awareness of grandparents, parents and professionals about the need for the support. It was suggested that the support for grandparents of children with developmental disabilities such as ASD and the support for grandparent caregivers of children with disabilities were new tasks to be tackled. For the future practice of support for grandparents, the significance of support for grandparents and the practical implications of support for grandparents were mentioned