Young Autism Spectrum Disorder Children in Special and Mainstream Education Settings Have Similar Behavioral Characteristics.
Test settings yourself—cognitive scores and parent schooling barely predict which preschool room works for a young child with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ilan et al. (2021) asked a simple question. Do preschoolers with autism in special-ed classes look different from those in mainstream classes?
They gave parents and teachers short surveys. The surveys rated each child’s autism traits, thinking skills, and family education.
The team looked at about 200 one- to five-year-olds in both settings. Then they ran stats to see which factors predicted placement.
What they found
Cognitive scores, autism severity, and parent schooling all did a poor job of guessing where a child sat.
Kids in special rooms and kids in typical rooms had almost the same score ranges. The groups overlapped so much that you could not tell them apart on paper.
How this fits with other research
Keen et al. (2004) saw the same weak link in the UK twenty years earlier. Their smaller case series also found that IQ did not drive placement.
Reed et al. (2010) looked deeper. They showed that special nurseries can boost adaptive skills as much as one-to-one home ABA. So placement type can matter for growth, even if kids start out looking alike.
Keen et al. (2016) scoping review agrees. School-age students with autism span the whole ability map. The review urges teams to look at individual profiles, not labels, when picking classrooms.
Why it matters
For BCBAs in preschool teams, the takeaway is clear. A child’s file won’t tell you the best classroom. Watch the child, not the score. Push for trials in both settings when possible. Use brief probes and data to decide where learning happens fastest.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In many countries, parents can place autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children in either mainstream or special education settings, which differ in their ability to provide structured early intervention programs. There are no clear guidelines for how to make initial placement decisions and ongoing debate about the benefits and drawbacks of each educational setting. Previous studies have mostly examined placement of school-age children and reported that those with poorer cognitive abilities and more severe ASD symptoms tend to be placed in special education. The placement of younger children has rarely been studied. Here, we utilized the database at the National Autism Research Center of Israel to examine whether ASD severity, cognitive abilities, and parent education influenced the placement of 242 children. We performed the analyses separately for 1-3-year-old children who were placed in daycare centers and 3-5-year-old children who were placed in pre-school kindergartens. Our analyses revealed surprisingly small differences across special and mainstream education settings, particularly in daycare centers. Cognitive scores and parent education were significantly higher in ASD children placed in mainstream education, but these differences were of moderate effect size and explained a relatively small percentage of the variability in placement choices (<15%). Indeed, we found considerable overlap in the characteristics of ASD children across educational settings, which suggests that initial placement decisions are performed with little regard to the children's abilities. Given the importance of optimal early intervention, further studies are warranted to determine whether children with specific abilities and needs benefit more from placement in either educational setting. LAY SUMMARY: Currently, there are no clear recommendations for placing young children with ASD in special versus mainstream education settings. We examined the influence of ASD severity, cognitive abilities, and parent education on the initial placement of 242 children. While we found significantly higher cognitive scores and parental education in children placed in mainstream education, there was a remarkable overlap in the characteristics of children across both settings, suggesting that initial placement is performed with limited regard to the children's abilities. Autism Res 2021, 14: 699-708. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2021 · doi:10.1002/aur.2400