Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Schools

Pre-School Children and School-Aged Students with ASD
Considerable frustration at inconsistent access to pre-school supports was voiced repeatedly –
access to DES services depends on a formal diagnosis of ASD. Parents and professionals advised
that this dependency on a diagnosis – not always readily available or desirable – and having
to wait for diagnosis, caused significant stress to parents seeking crucial early intervention
services. This resulted in intense pressure on professionals to make an early diagnosis (even
where not clinically necessary at that time for that child).
All groups voiced concern about the lack of therapeutic and clinical services (psychology,
speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and psychiatry) to support
children in pre-schools which they considered to be limited and inconsistently available at best
and often not available at all.
There is strong support for the ECCE scheme to be extended to two years for children with
special educational needs, including ASD, as many require additional time to be ready for
school. Generally it was considered that pre-school age was too early to separate children from
their peers because if they started off in special settings it was likely they would remain there.
Ideally groups considered that they should be supported to attend mainstream pre-schools so
they could mix with other children without ASD. But concern was expressed that mainstream
pre-schools currently had not the necessary levels of staff with appropriate training and
experience – there was particular concern and confusion about the national funding of preschool
assistants in mainstream settings for these children.
Some groups thought a visiting teacher service to support children with ASD and their families
might work to provide additional support necessary.
One group considered that young children with ASD should be educated in ASD specific settings
and receive early intensive behavioural intervention (EIBI) on a one-to-one basis through an
ABA framework. This would provide the therapist with the specific tools for motivating the
child to learn effectively. Staff in ASD specific settings should be supervised by a board certified
behavioural analyst (BCBA) to ensure that behavioural interventions were appropriately
implemented. This group considered all individuals in the child’s environment required intensive
training in the principles of applied behaviour analysis, including individualised assessment,
design and implementation of individualised intervention programmes as well as in-depth
and on-site training in behaviour management skills. This was not a consensus view across
consultation groups, however, as others voiced concern that children could become promptand
reinforcement-dependent in such environments.
Problems with the operation of the home tuition scheme were identified. The scheme’s
quality and the qualifications and experience of home tutors should be monitored. One group
considered that tutor qualification needed to be broadened to include psychology and ABA
as these were appropriate qualifications for working with pre-school children with ASD. Some
parents did not know about the scheme while others had difficulty finding suitable and qualified
home tutors as no such list was available to them. Other parents expressed concern about the
combined allocation of home tuition hours for siblings.
Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Schools – NCSE Policy Advice 2015 27