مداخلات برای کودکان مبتلا به اختلالات طیف اوتیسم در تنظیمات مدرسه فراگیر

Students with ASD present unique challenges to school systems. Despite these challenges, federal laws require that schools implement research-based practices in the least restrictive environment (LRE). The LRE is often deemed to be the general education classroom and the primary intervention agent is often the classroom teacher. Ensuring students with ASD receive effective intervention in these least restrictive and inclusive school settings will depend, in part, on the extent to which teachers and school personnel are prepared to implement research-based interventions. The purpose of this article is to provide a summary of research-based interventions for students with ASD. Our focus in this summary is on interventions that can be implemented in inclusive school settings by teachers and classroom support personnel. We first provide a general overview of interventions designed to reduce challenging behavior, teach communication skills, and improve social relationships. This is followed by a discussion of the obstacles to intervention implementation that may be present in school settings. Finally, we conclude by offering a list of intervention guidelines.

Public schools should provide an ideal mechanism for delivering interventions for autism, as children are in school for many hours a day and for the majority of their developing years. This provides opportunity to deliver an intensive, comprehensive intervention focusing on improving communication and socialization, and expanding the autistic child's interests. Further, if the educational program is coordinated with parent education, a substantial portion of the child’s day can be covered with intervention in the natural environment. Such intensive and coordinated programs correspond with recommendations made by the National Research Council (2001) for comprehensive intervention for autism. Yet, delivering these services through the school system is challenging. Research findings related to addressing these challenges are described in detail in this article. The number of public school children in the United States diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased and may now be as high as 1 case per 110 students (Center for Disease Control, 2010). Students with ASD often fail to develop meaningful social relationships with teachers and classmates, may struggle to communicate (in some instances totally lacking spoken language), and are likely to engage in challenging behavior, ranging from tantrums to self-injury, aggression, and property destruction (DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000, National Research Council, Committee on Educational Interventions for Children with Autism, 2001 and Sigafoos et al., 2003).

Previous research has demonstrated that students with ASD can make progress on educational and behavioral goals within inclusion classrooms. The National Research Council on Autism (2001) recommends that parents be actively involved in the educational process, that children attend a full school day with full-year programming, and that intervention be provided for a minimum of 25 hours per week. This article endeavored to provide a brief overview highlighting promising research-based interventions. At this point, there is no doubt that future research, towards further supporting teachers and their students with ASD in inclusive classrooms, remains warranted. However, given the success of previous research and the societal trend towards accepting and including individuals with ASD, it is reasonable to predict that future research will indeed lead to even more efficient and effective interventions.