From early intervention to elementary school: A survey of transition support practices for children with autism spectrum disorders.
Canadian early-intervention teams already give strong, personalized hand-offs to kindergarten, but they need money and school cooperation to make the process reliable.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Delgado-Lobete et al. (2019) sent a short online form to every Canadian early-intervention program.
They asked how teams plan, share records, and coach families when a child with autism leaves for kindergarten.
One hundred thirty-three program leaders replied, giving a country-wide snapshot of transition routines.
What they found
Most programs said they tailor plans for each child and meet with parents at least twice.
Biggest roadblocks: no government money set aside for hand-off work and elementary schools that won’t answer emails or attend meetings.
In short, staff try hard, but the system starves the process.
How this fits with other research
Pye et al. (2024) asked the same question in Australia after a national insurance law began. They also saw lots of therapy use, but richer families and city kids got more—showing money and place still decide who actually gets served.
Hamama et al. (2021) surveyed doctors who move teens with autism to adult care. They found the same gap: providers mean well, yet only one in three follows basic check-list steps. The pattern repeats—good intentions, weak backing.
Vassos et al. (2023) capped five years of autism-transition work and listed “include autistic voices” and “track equity” as top future steps. Delgado-Lobete et al. (2019) did not record either, so the field has now moved the goal-posts past this paper.
Why it matters
You can copy the Canadian bright spots today: write a one-page transition plan, invite both the teacher and the parent to sign, and schedule a final visit to the kindergarten room. Then tackle the bigger barrier—ask your director for even one paid hour per child to coordinate. The data say that small budget line could double the quality of your hand-offs.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Early school transitions can be difficult for children, however, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often experience greater difficulty making the transition into school. Transition support practices, such as transition meetings, can facilitate successful school beginnings. AIMS: The aim of the present study was to determine what type and amount of transition support practices early intervention (EI) service providers were implementing to support the transition to school of children with ASDs. Barriers and facilitators to transition planning were also evaluated. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Surveys were completed by program directors of 164 EI service providers across Canada. Program directors reported on transition support practices in use, as well as program level characteristics. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Overall, Canadian EI providers reported using a high frequency of high-quality, individualized transition supports for children with ASD. Major barriers included a lack of government support and elementary school engagement. Specialized transition training and offering ASD-specific services were related to an increase in transition supports. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The present study highlights areas for improvement in transition support practice and policy. Namely, increased government support could lead to increased levels of elementary school engagement, which has important implications for children's long- and short-term educational outcomes.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2019 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2019.02.006