Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined as a lifetime developmental disorder usually identified by social interaction impairment, communication deficits, and repetitive behavior. The cases of children detected with ASD are rising globally, including Malaysia. Parents, as the prime caregiver to these children, face numerous challenges due to what is entailed in taking care of their children. This paper describes a case study where we examined the views and experience of three mothers, each of whom has an ASD child. Data were gathered through face-to-face semi-structured interviews, after which they were transcribed and analyzed using the thematic analysis method. The mothers narrated that the challenges they encountered include the difficulty they had in initially accepting their child’s diagnosis; labelling and discrimination; phase-based temporal challenges; endless physical, emotional, and mental sacrifices; finding the strength and patience to deal with the situation; academic vs. non-academic struggles, as well as their own coping mechanisms. This paper concludes with the need to provide support for parents-especially mothers-to enable them to overcome their challenges and focus on the development of their autistic children.

Introduction - Literature reveals that attitude is a crucial factor in reading. Having positive reading attitudes can influence students’ academic achievement. Research in this field has increasingly investigated the nature and role of positive attitudes in language learning, and also its variations between boys and girls. However, in Malaysia, there has only been a small number of researches that investigate teachers’ perceptions on reading attitudes of students especially those in primary schools. It is of great significance to explore the reading attitudes of these groups of students as the Malaysian Government calls for every student to be able to function in Bahasa Malaysia and also English language settings. Purpose – This paper documents teachers' personal perceptions regarding students' reading attitudes, ways of dealing with them, and their suggestions on teaching the different gender. Methodology – This is a qualitative study which employs focus group interviews and journal entries to gain an in-depth understanding of the reading attitudes of boys and girls from teachers’ perspective. It involves interviews with six Bahasa Malaysia teachers and six English teachers from six primary schools chosen randomly in Selangor. The focus group interview sessions took approximately one hour and thirty minutes each. Data are also obtained from journal entries to further elicit the teachers’ ideas and thoughts regarding the issue. The results of the interviews are transcribed by the researchers, and both the interviews and journal entries are analysed using thematic analysis. Findings – In sum, teachers feel that girls have more positive attitudes toward reading in comparison to boys. Data from the interviews and journal entries reveal rather similar and parallel themes in relation to boys’ and girls’ reading attitudes in L1 and L2. Several themes have emerged from the interviews with the teachers, which include the gendered preference of reading materials, teaching strategies, school, family, peer, and student factors, which all play a part in students’ literacy achievement. Although teachers are aware of the differences between boys and girls in literacy, especially in reading, not many employ different strategies in teaching reading to boys and girls. Significance – Conceivably the Teacher Education Division could incorporate relevant courses to deal with specific literacy teaching strategies regarding different gender.