Autism and Inclusion
Ermias Kibreab, PhD
ermi2000@gmail.com
These days inclusion is often related to provision of quality education to all
groups of learners. According Symes and Humphery (2012), inclusion
includes qualities like acknowledging their presence, participation,
acceptance, and achievements. The authors also recommend that schools
must adapt to the needs of students they have, so that inclusion becomes a
success. The same explanation holds true for children with autism, schools
are expected to adjust their system to meet needs of autistic children. With
regard to inclusion of autistic children to mainstream schools, the practice
differs from continent to continent, place to place, and even from school to
school for various reasons like economical, social, political commitment, etc.
Developed countries have relatively high proportion of autistic children
enrolled in to the regular classrooms, and they have also devised different
strategies to satisfy their needs and improve their integration in to
mainstream schools. For example, the figure presented by Bond and Hebron
(2016) puts the proportion for England as high as 70%.
There are also professional debates when it comes to inclusion of children
with autism to mainstream schools. Inclusion of autistic children to
mainstream classes is believed to be beneficial academically as well as
socially (Symes and Humphrey, 2012). The same article also sites other
sources and indicates that autistic children are considered as more difficult
to include in mainstream classes. Lindsay et al. (2014) supports the later
idea as ASD involves communication and social impairments and described it
as learning disability.
Quite a lot of researches indicate that successful implementation of
principles of inclusion to schools benefits those students with ‘special needs’,
autism being not different. Some of the benefits suggested by scholars
included promoting awareness about ASD, increased student engagement,
reducing stigma, social interaction, increased social support, better
achievements, etc (Lindsay et al., 2013; Jordan, 1997; Bond and Hebron,
2016; Symes and Humphrey, 2012).
In contrary, other scholars argue that autistic children are difficult to be
included to mainstream classes and indicate that schools will be challenged
in addressing their needs. There are also barriers that hinder successful
inclusion of autistic children to mainstream schools/classes which basically
emanates from the nature of the disorder which affects their social,
communication, and other vital components. Leblanc et al. (2009) argued
that teaching autistic children is not an easy job as symptoms associated
with the disorder can interfere with learning. The authors challenge the idea
of including autistic children to mainstream schools as some of the
symptoms like communication difficulty, social interaction challenges,
resistance to change in routines, repetitive body movements, and speech
patterns could result in stress and present a challenge for students and
educators. Symes and Humphrey (2012) highlighted challenges that schools
face in addressing the risk of exclusion and bullying in inclusive environment.
Studies suggest that, at school level, autistic children are 20 times more
likely to be socially excluded compared to their peers (Humphrey as cited in
Lindy et al., 2014). According to the UK National Autistic Society, autistic
pupils are prone to be bullied for various reasons associated with the
symptoms of the disorder. The reasons were related to having difficulty in
communication, being unable to interpret body languages or facial
expressions, challenges with forming and maintaining friendship, etc. anxiety
at schools and school refusals were indicated as consequences of bullying.
Level of teachers’ awareness on the disorder is another challenge for the full
integration of autistic students to mainstream classes. Scholars argue for the
need of providing adequate training for all teachers who work with autistic
children and providing support and equipping them with working strategies
to include students with ASD successfully (Lindsay et al., 2013). This way,
teachers will be prepared and will be able to respond to the various
symptoms of autistic children. Attitude of teachers towards inclusion of
children with ASD is another critical factor that could impact successful
integration of autistic children to mainstream classes. In the study conducted
by Lindsay et al. (2013) to assess Educators’ Challenges of Including Children
with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Mainstream Classrooms, they found out
that many teachers lack training and resources to successfully implement
principles of inclusion for autistic pupils. Lack of understanding of ASD and
its nature/symptoms and handling mechanisms is identified as one reason
for failure in inclusion. Teachers were found out to feel unprepared to
support autistic children in their classrooms socially, academically and
behaviorally due to their inadequate knowledge about ASD.
Roberts and Simpson (2016) have presented the tension among educators
that promote right-based approach and those promoting need based
approach. Right based inclusionists were against the idea of autism-specific
adaptations or autism-specific training for staff as it leads to labeling and
potentially exclusionary. Contrary to this, those who support need-based
approach promote for identification of autistic children and get the necessary
support. The latter group support provision of autism-specific training for
staff.
Supporting the ideas raised so far, Jordan (1997) pinpointed other factors
which hamper successful inclusion of autistic children to mainstream classes.
Behaviour of autistic children could be disruptive for classrooms and also an
issue of safety for other students. Explaining to peers as to why pupils with
autism were treated differently is also a difficult task to deal with. The typical
school environment which is characterized as busy, loud and crowded may
not be appropriate to autistic children.
