**5. Social and cultural factors**

[1, 2] ecological framework of the different systems that impact on a child's development, could also help researchers and practitioners to better understand the situation of parents who are taking care of a child with ASD. He posits five different systems that can influence childhood development: the Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem and Chronosystem. A change in any one of these components can cause a change in the other components. Micro‐ systems are those closest to the child-such as family and school-as they directly impact on the child. These Microsystems are interrelated and together form a higher level system: the Mesosystem. However these take place within an Exosystem of community services and supports that in turn is influenced by the wider cultural Macrosystem, including ideologies, laws, economic and social policies and religious attitudes. All of these systems and the interactions between them can change over the course of a child's life which is captured in the concept of the Chronosystem.

As [33] argued, in an ecological model the main emphasis has to be on "fixing" the multiple ecological environments, rather than "fixing" the child with disability and having him/her fit into different social layers of family, community and society, which is the aim of the medical model. This suggests a shift of attitude to change the focus away from the child with disability as an independent entity towards a more global view which covers both children and their families. According to an ecological model, the focus is on a transformed ecology in which children with different types of disabilities can develop by using their skills in interaction with a responsive environment [33].
