Is it really student-focused planning? Perspectives of students with autism.
Australian teens with autism want a real seat at their transition table but are still left standing.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Chandroo et al. (2020) talked with Australian high-schoolers who have autism.
They asked how much the teens really help write their own transition plans.
The kids shared what they knew about the process and what they wanted to change.
What they found
Most students said, "I barely know what the plan is."
They wanted to speak up, but staff left them out.
Kids felt meetings were adult talk shows with no kid host.
How this fits with other research
Walsh et al. (2017) counted US health-care plans and also saw less than 10% success.
Brugnaro et al. (2024) asked teens with intellectual disability to rate their own life skills.
Those teens also felt left out and under-prepared, so the problem crosses diagnoses.
Hume et al. (2018) surveyed students, parents, and teachers together.
They found big gaps in how each group rated transition skills.
That paper shows adults and kids rarely agree, backing up why student voice is missing.
Why it matters
If the client in front of you cannot explain their own transition goals, the plan is not student-focused.
Start every meeting by asking the learner to state one goal in their own words.
Use that answer to drive the rest of the agenda.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Student-focused planning has emerged as a primary indicator of post-school success. However, without mandated policies or procedures in place for transition planning in Australia, students with autism will continue to be minimally engaged or completely disengaged from the transition planning process in schools. This is likely to significantly impact post-school outcomes for these students. While previous studies have investigated the extent of student involvement in their IEP transition planning meetings, none of these studies considered the views of students with autism, despite research suggesting that children are experts of their own experiences and their own lives. AIM: The aim of the current study was to determine how involved students with autism were in the transition planning process. METHOD AND PROCEDURES: Interviews were conducted with 18 students with autism aged 15-18 years. Interviews were analysed using inductive content analysis. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: The results revealed that students lacked knowledge of the transition planning process, however many students expressed the desire to be significantly involved in the process. The majority of students reported that they only contributed minimally during meetings. Numerous students reported being unaware of existing transition practices (i.e., work experience opportunities) that were in place for them. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: There is an urgent need for transition planning to be mandated in Australia to allow students with disabilities to receive appropriate support in school (i.e., schools and teachers should actively advocate person-centered planning and support students to develop self-determination skills).
Research in developmental disabilities, 2020 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103783