Special Education Service Use by Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Autistic students without ID often lack behavior plans and social goals—check the IEP and fill the gap.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pitchford et al. (2019) asked parents what services their autistic children receive at school.
They looked only at kids without intellectual disability.
Parents filled out a national survey listing every therapy on the IEP.
What they found
Speech and occupational therapy topped the list.
Only one in six children had a behavior plan or social-skills goals.
The gap was biggest for kids with average IQ scores.
How this fits with other research
van Timmeren et al. (2016) saw the same hole for preschoolers: most got no behavior therapy at all.
Marsh et al. (2017) reviewed kindergarten studies and found behavioral classroom tools help academics yet schools still skip them.
Kleinert et al. (2007) showed dozens of social-skills packages exist, so supply is not the problem.
Together the papers say the missing piece is not what works, but what schools actually use.
Why it matters
If you write IEPs, scan for blank spaces where behavior plans or social goals should be.
Add one measurable social objective or a brief behavior plan this week.
One sentence in the IEP can open the door to services the child has never seen.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In the last decade, the prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability (ID) in schools has increased. However, there is a paucity of information on special education placement, service use, and relationships between service use and demographic variables for children with ASD without ID. This study aimed to describe and explore variation in type and amount of special education services provided to (N = 89) children with ASD. Results indicated that the largest percentage of children received services under the Autism classification (56.2%) and were in partial-inclusion settings (40.4%). The main services received were speech (70.8%) and occupational (56.2%) therapies, while few children received behavior plans (15.7%) or social skills instruction (16.9%). Correlates with service use are described.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2019 · doi:10.1007/s10803-019-03997-z