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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.

Over the past decades, much of the discussion regarding grammar teaching has evolved around the identification of the best language teaching approach to facilitate effective learning of English language among second language (L2) learners. Despite the various approaches introduced and implemented in the realm of L2 teaching, the language performances of these learners are still 'off-target' as they are still found not able to use the correct language expressions to serve their communicative needs. Investigation of the use of concepts in the learning and teaching of grammar may provide an alternative solution in enhancing learners' L2 grammar competence. Known as Concept Based Instruction (CBI) this pedagogical approach that is predicated on Vygotskian thought, centres on promoting the quality of the grammar rules in helping learners to understand and use the grammar concepts to achieve their communicative needs. This article focuses on the principles found in CBI with the aim of exploring CBI's potential and hence facilitate in-depth understanding of not only the structural forms but also the semantic meaning of the target language among L2 learners.