Table 2.

Description summary of the articles reviewed

First Author	Year	Design	Objective	Participants	Age	Setting	Quality score	Results
Gona[16]	2017	Qualitative design and applied a phenomenological methodology	To explore the life challenges of raising a child with autism on the Kenyan coast	37 parents	Above 18	Coastal Kenya	12	Challenges include stigma, lack of appropriate treatment, financial, and caring burdens regardless of their religious and cultural backgrounds.
Cloete[17]	2019	Descriptive phenomenological study	To explore the perspectives of caregivers who are responsible for caring for both family and children living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and to highlight the needs of children with ASD as well as the needs of their caregivers	300 caregivers	Above 18 years	Kenyatta National Hospital	14	The burden of caring for children with ASD was identified. Children with ASD and their caregivers experience isolation and stigmatization.
Elliott[18]	2018	Qualitative design	Prevalence of ASD and challenges they face	1354 respondents	18-35 years	45 counties	10	Both those with a family member with autism and who have autism themselves agree that more support from the government is needed, with just 16% saying they have enough support from the government. Out of the larger sample of those who know people with autism, 74% say those with autism do not get enough support from the government.
Gona[19]	2015	Qualitative design and applied a phenomenological methodology guided by the Explanatory Model framework	To explore parents’ and professionals’ perceived causes and treatment of ASD	103 participants (parents and health professionals)	Above 18	Coastal Kenya	14	Treatment varied from traditional and spiritual healing to modern treatment in health facilities, and included consultations with traditional healers, offering prayers to God, and visits to hospitals.
Kamau[7]	2017	Exploratory research,	Study sought to understand the difficulties that parents, caregivers and special needs providers encounter as they experience the diagnosis, and treatment of autism in Kenya.	50 participants	Above 18	Nairobi	11	This study found out that a lot of parents mostly mothers of children with autism retreat and suffer in silence. Additionally there is also a lack of institutional support.
Obaigwa[20]	2019	Descriptive, phenomenological	The purpose of this study was to describe challenges faced by caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder to access the crucial services in Kenya	300 participants	Above 18 years	Kenyatta National Hospital	14	Caregivers faced difficulty in accessing support and crucial services in the management of children having ASD. Furthermore social and financial challenges were also noted
Cohen[21]	2012	Qualitative study	To illustrate several obstacles that children with autism face in Kisumu, Kenya in accessing the successful intervention services that they so desperately need.	Parents of seven children in the autism unit	Above 18 years	Kisumu	11	Inaccessibility of early intervention services to children with ASD were noted. The resources to support children with autism are not nearly accessible enough for the many families in Kisumu that are in desperate need of assistance for their children.
Ouma[22]	2016	Guided by the theory of social constructivism methodology	To investigate the outcomes of mothers’ involvement in early identification and intervention for children with autism.	172 parents	Above 18 years	Nairobi	12	The research found that some mothers identified children with autism as early as two years while others were identified as late as thirteen years.
Chabeda -Barthe[23]	2019	Ethnographic study methodology	To demonstrate why there needs to be a societal change in the way child developmental disability is understood , and handled in a developing country such as Kenya	90 questionnaires were filled out by parents	Above 18 years	Nairobi County	13	More needs to be done to change the community’s attitude toward disability