The schooling of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has always been a topic of debate among education and psychology professionals. Today, World Autism Awareness Day, we take the opportunity to make a brief analysis of the schooling of minors with disabilities in mainstream centers. In Spain, there are 481 special education centers. These serve around 32,000 students, which is 21.5% of the total. The rest, more than 117,000, are integrated into mainstream schools and institutes.
We spoke with the co-directing psychologists of ISEP’s Master’s in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Raquel Ayuda, Josep Mª Brun, and Rafael Villanueva, about the integration of these children into the educational system.
How is a child with ASD integrated into a classroom with other peers without special needs?
Raquel Ayuda: The child is included in a mainstream center by “being” present in the mainstream center. Although this is obvious, the challenge in inclusive education is precisely related to this aspect: that the student is not only present in the classrooms with other children but also forms part of that school and those classrooms, just like the rest. The truth is that some time ago it seemed unthinkable that children with ASD could learn and function adaptively in inclusive educational contexts. Both the information available to address the special characteristics of these students and the scarce training offered often posed an insurmountable challenge to inclusion.
Rafael Villanueva: The success of including a child with ASD in a mainstream school depends on many factors being taken into account and on the severity level of the disorder or disorders the child suffers from.
Josep Mª Brun: Based on the understanding of their mental functioning and behaviors, the adaptation of times, spaces, and activities, the help with material, human, and also training resources, and the advice and accompaniment to those who will be in charge of them. It is a complex and often difficult task, which goes beyond the essential good predisposition of the host center.
Rafael Villanueva: On the other hand, a high investment is needed in teacher training in ASD and in continuous advice to the involved teachers. Therefore, coordination with public or private centers that treat the child and networking are very important. Direct attention to the child in the classroom is the tip of the iceberg of an entire network of coordination between teams and the training, advice, and accompaniment of teachers. Furthermore, the relationship and collaboration between family and school are fundamental for inclusion to work.
Raquel Ayuda: There are intermediate educational models, in which all students with ASD are included in mainstream schools through the management (by autism specialists) of stable/preferred classrooms that allow specialized and intensive attention, while also enabling the active participation of children with ASD in the classroom. Of course, having students with ASD represents a significant challenge for the center and the teacher in terms of their training and adaptation, but the inclusion of students with ASD also provides teachers with the incorporation of innovative educational methodologies that benefit all students, not to mention the invaluable positive effect on the attitudes of neurotypical children as they grow and learn alongside “special” students.
Is the educational model of special education centers at the same level as other mainstream centers? Does sending a child with ASD to a special center imply a regression in terms of education and socialization?
Josep Mª Brun: The first thing we must know is that there is no general and single indication about what is the best schooling for a child with an autistic disorder. It depends on the child, their developmental stage both personally and in the disorder, the resources that can be offered, the level of understanding of the caregivers, the type of peers, an acceptable level of suffering for everyone… Both special and mainstream schools can be good indications in a given situation and case.
Raquel Ayuda: Usual schooling routes facilitate and reinforce the belief that access to a special education center implies a certain “failure” fundamentally because this access occurs after schooling in a mainstream center has proven complicated or the student with ASD presents more adaptation difficulties than those observed in early stages.
The ability to provide more individualized educational possibilities represents an ideal approach. At the same time, the experience and specialization of professionals working in special education centers are leveraged for the training and support of professionals in mainstream centers, becoming references that help the educational inclusion of these students.
Rafael Villanueva: It is true that the mainstream school environment is richer in offerings and relational models, but it is not certain that this offering reaches the child with ASD or that they can take advantage of it. It is not easy for children without these types of problems to relate to children with ASD, just as it is not for any other person, and they will become discouraged and withdraw if they are not helped to understand them and know how to relate to them. In special schools, very rich relational experiences can occur with some peers, sometimes even more so than in mainstream schools.
Regarding the possibility of learning, I also don’t believe it can be assured that they will learn in one school and not in the other. Everything will depend on the resources available, knowledge of the problem, and the vitality and richness of the pedagogical offerings. Collaboration between these specialized schools, mainstream schools, and specialized centers (CDIAP, CSMIJ, other public and private centers, etc.) are, in my opinion, the future of successful inclusion of children with ASD in mainstream schools.
What role do psychology and education professionals play in the integration of children with ASD into mainstream schools?
Rafael Villanueva: They are a basic and essential pillar for their inclusion. It must be taken into account that autism can cause very difficult feelings for teachers to manage and tolerate. They may feel that what they offer is worthless or very insufficient. They may feel guilty for not being able to attend to the child with ASD and the rest of the children in the classroom. It is easy for them to get discouraged or try to make them just one more and do the same as everyone else so as not to marginalize them. They may feel inexperienced in the subject, with more or less reason, and therefore believe that they can no longer offer anything valuable. For all this, teacher training is very important, as is the care and advice they receive from the Psychopedagogical Advisory Teams of the schools and from specialized Early Intervention and Mental Health professionals.
Josep Mª Brun: They have a dual and fundamental role. On the one hand, to understand the child to find the best ways to help them with their inclusion. And on the other, to help the people who care for the child (teachers, educators, caregivers) to understand their actions and mental functioning and to relate to them.
Rafael Villanueva: If we want comprehensive care for the child with ASD, we must “care for the caregiver” only then will we ensure that the “treatment” generates an appropriate “approach” to the needs, difficulties, and capacities of the child with ASD.
Raquel Ayuda: The commitment to educational models focused on inclusion inevitably involves the specialization of professionals in the educational field, as Rafael points out. In addition to teacher training, there is a need to recognize appropriate communication and learning methodologies for these students so that they can directly stimulate the competencies of the child with ASD. As Josep Mª says, adequate guidance must also be provided to other professionals who coexist in the school environment and not just to teachers.
How does ISEP prepare you for this?
Raquel Ayuda: ISEP prepares professionals to address the stimulation of students with ASD from a multidisciplinary and specialized framework, which allows professionals from different disciplines to approach the person with ASD from the knowledge of how to observe, how to program stimulation, and how to carry it out. This facilitates that professionals trained in the field of ASD become references for other professionals within the school.
Josep Mª Brun: The master’s program we direct dedicates 25% of its teaching hours to reflecting on and learning about the mainstream and special schooling of these children. During these hours, the pedagogy designed for them, the organization of time and space, the essential advice to their caregivers, and the minimum necessary conditions for good inclusion, among other related issues, are presented.
Rafael Villanueva: Both the Postgraduate in Early Intervention and the Master’s in Autism Spectrum Disorder are important training for psychologists, pedagogues, and other professionals in the educational or clinical field.
The three of you focus a large part of your clinical practice on caring for children with autism. Rafael Villanueva and Josep Mª Brun direct the AGIRA program, and Raquel Ayuda works on the Deletrea project. What do your projects offer?
Josep Mª Brun: The AGIRA Program within Early Intervention emerged in 2007 from the need to offer the child and their family global, constant, integrated, and coordinated assistance that responds to the real therapeutic need of the condition. AGIRA is an acronym that means Assistència Global a Infants en Risc d’Autisme (Global Assistance for Children at Risk of Autism). It has two basic objectives: the early detection and treatment of children with signs of risk of suffering from an autism spectrum disorder and the attention to the different protagonists of the case from different treatment areas (psychological, neuropediatric, social, educational, and others).
Rafael Villanueva: That is, to promote that the child is understood and receives appropriate treatment in the environments in which they live and that promote their development. Mainly, the family and the school. With special emphasis on prevention and early detection and on advising, training, and accompanying the professionals involved in the care of these children (school professionals, CDIAP, etc.).
Raquel Ayuda: From Deletrea, we seek to address the needs of people with ASD and their families throughout their life cycle. Deletrea provides orientation, evaluation-diagnosis, and stimulation services both in the context of early intervention and in later developmental stages, including adulthood. Updating the training of our own team, as well as the training of professionals in the fields of education and psychology, is a priority for us. Similarly, we participate in the development of materials and books that can serve as a guide and support for both families and other professionals in the field of stimulating people with ASD. We are currently collaborating within the framework of the European Union on the development of a software tool (Open Book) that facilitates reading comprehension in adults with ASD.
Related Master’s Program:
Master’s in Autism Spectrum Disorder
We recommend reading Newsletter No. 3 of the AGIRA Program: L’escolarització dels infants amb TEA. I) Escola ordinària, from February 2014, by Josep Mª Brun.