Schools ‘need to sustain’ autism support

Qualified specialists on the ground needed to sustain better education outcomes for school children on the autism spectrum, says Flinders University Inclusive and Specialised Education expert Dr Julie McMillan.

While South Australia’s nation-leading initiative to employ autism inclusion teachers in every primary school is a good start, Flinders University researcher Dr McMillan stresses support must go deeper if autistic children are to achieve the best outcomes from their years at school.

More than 92 per cent of students on the autism spectrum attending school have experienced some form of educational restriction with 77.8 per cent reporting difficulties with fitting in socially, learning and communication (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019).

Dr Julie McMillan, director of the Research in Inclusive and Specialised Education (RISE) Initiative at the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work.

Dr McMillan, Director of the Research in Inclusive and Specialised Education (RISE) Initiative, says the increase in the numbers of children with disability and other additional learning needs attending mainstream schools requires appropriate supports and resources to be available in all schools.

“We know that autism is one of the most prevalent neurodivergent groups of children requiring adjustments to support their learning,” she says.

“About 10 per cent of school age children live with disability or neurodivergence that impacts their learning and almost 90 percent of children with disability attend mainstream schools, so there is a big piece of work to be done in building the education system’s capacity to deliver the best education for everyone.

“While the move to appoint autism inclusion teachers recognises that there is a need for more understanding and knowledge about autism in our schools, this on its own will not deliver whole-school inclusive teaching and learning practices in our schools and classrooms.”

Dr McMillan argues that significant investment from education systems is needed to build the kind of multi-tiered systems of support that meet the diverse needs of children across the autism spectrum, and children with a range of learning differences.

She says Federal Government investment in national level professional learning for educators has broadly led to improved understanding of autism and principles of inclusive education, but the 2020 Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with a Disability showed that learners with disability, particularly learners on the autism spectrum, are still overrepresented in school exclusionary and restrictive practices.

“What the research shows is that while improving teacher understanding of autism is a necessary part of addressing diversity, it has not been enough to establish school systems where children on the autism spectrum flourish,” Dr McMillan says.

“There needs to be ongoing investment in sustained leadership and teacher professional learning so that we can adopt measurable inclusive practices across the whole school community and see how that investment makes a difference to the experiences of children on the autism spectrum.

“Short courses for individual teachers in a school will not deliver the depth of expertise, or the level of support to general educators that is needed to ensure inclusive teaching practises are embedded across a school.

“Just as we acknowledge other learning area experts such as maths or science teachers to lead education in those fields, we need to understand that experts in inclusive practice with initial teacher education or post graduate qualifications in the field, are central to supporting schools that can deliver the best education for children with neurodivergent needs.”

Dr McMillan says professional learning for educators must be sustained, onsite, action based and should be delivered by people with expert knowledge and skills who are able to work directly with schools and their leaders.

“Qualified specialist educators can provide timely expertise and lead an integrated approach that includes student support teams and coach teachers on-site to work collaboratively with generalist or subject-specific teachers so that inclusive practices are applied schoolwide,” she says.

“The investment required is not insignificant, but doing less or indeed more of the same without evidence that it is achieving improvements and benefits for autistic children, indicates a poor return on our investment.”

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College of Education Psychology and Social Work