SCHOOLING AUTISTIC CHILDREN

The inclusion of children with autism in mainstream schools is increasing. From your own experience and the literature, discuss the potential benefits and disadvantages of this



The inclusion of children with autism in mainstream schools is increasing. From your own experience and the literature, discuss the potential benefits and disadvantages of this

Introduction

Autism, a pervasive developmental disorder that has been poorly understood and severely affects a person's abilities, especially in language development and social relations. Autistic children typically are generally normal in appearance and physically well developed (Russell, Ford, Steer & Golding, 2010). Their disabilities in communication and understanding have different degrees depending on how severely they are affected. Historically, about 75% of people with autism, may be affected by a form of mental retardation, but the most distinctive feature that helps distinguish them from those purely mental retardation, is that autistic children have the appearance of be isolated from the world around them (Dichter, Radonovich, Turner-Brown, Lam, Holtzclaw & Bodfish, 2010).

I have chosen this assignment because this area is currently most important and interesting to me because I have two children on the autistic spectrum. My older child (a son) attends a mainstream secondary school which has a unit that supports pupils with autism and other special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). My youngest child (a daughter) started mainstream primary school last year, nevertheless due to coping difficulties regarding my daughter and teaching staff alike, I have since decided to change my daughters educational setting to another local mainstream primary school which also has a unit on site however this unit is specifically for children on the autistic spectrum and the school's main aim is to support autistic pupils in the unit until they are able to cope in the mainstream setting unsupported. Both of my children have had good and challenging experiences while attending mainstream school that I believe to be both interesting and relevant examples of how autistic children are included educationally and socially in a mainstream setting. Therefore I will use these experiences along with other sources to explore the positive and negative factors.

Autism manifests itself in an individual as a collection of symptoms that are rarely the same from one individual to another (Parsons & Lewis, 2010). Two children with the same diagnosis, intellectual abilities and economic status of families is more likely to be recognized more for their differences than their similarities (Hergüner, Kelesoglu, Tanidir & Çöpür, 2012). The professional community is still working on the problems of autism to sort the confusion and controversy regarding the nature, causes, methods of diagnosis and treatment of autism.

Behaviors as "tantrums", aggression and disobedience, are identified as problems. Other behaviors are inherently passive nature, such as inattention, non-participation, isolation, these disorders interfere with child development (Kaniel & Siman-Tov, 2011). Any behavior that gets in the learning process should be considered as an alteration. Intensive research has shown that autistic children do not learn in the same way as other ...