The Transition to Kindergarten for Hispanic and Latine Autistic Children: A Focus Group Study with Caregivers.
Hispanic/Latine caregivers bring rich cultural capital to kindergarten transition but need proactive bilingual partnership and autism education from schools.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Spackman et al. (2025) ran focus groups with Hispanic and Latine caregivers of autistic children. They asked how families felt about the move into kindergarten. The talks were in Spanish and English.
The team recorded and coded every word. They looked for shared stories about school entry, help from teachers, and cultural needs.
What they found
Two big ideas came up. First, families draw on strong cultural capital: deep family nets, native language, and pride. Second, schools still toss up walls: few bilingual staff, little autism info, and late notices.
Caregivers want teachers to reach out early and speak Spanish. Without that, kids lose services and families feel shut out.
How this fits with other research
The findings line up with Kim et al. (2024). That review shows multilingual autistic kids learn better when schools use their home language. Emily et al. give the caregiver voice that proves the point.
Aleman-Tovar et al. (2025) go one step further. They trained Latinx parents to speak up for high-school transition and saw big gains. Emily et al. say the same advocacy gap starts at kindergarten—so an earlier version of that program could help.
Byers et al. (2013) sounds gloomy: Latino kids get autism services later than White peers. Emily et al. do not deny the gap; they show the cultural strengths families bring and the exact school fixes that could close it.
Why it matters
If you serve Hispanic or Latine preschoolers with autism, treat this paper as your roadmap. Start bilingual contact before the first school bell. Offer short autism lessons in Spanish and invite caregivers to help set goals. Use their cultural capital instead of ignoring it. A small move—like a Spanish welcome packet—can keep services and trust intact.
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Send a short Spanish note to each Hispanic/Latine family that introduces you, lists your contact, and asks what kindergarten support they want first.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: Past research highlights the different facilitators and barriers that caregivers of children on the autism spectrum experience during the transition to kindergarten and when navigating special education services. Caregivers who identify as Hispanic and/or Latine may face distinct challenges during this process, such as language differences, differences in understanding autism and special education, and barriers to advocating for their child. Hispanic and Latine caregivers also have strengths, resources, and strategies (i.e. cultural capital) that they use during this time. However, there is little research aimed at understanding the unique experiences of Hispanic and Latine caregivers of autistic children during their entry to kindergarten. METHODS: To address this shortcoming, the current study used qualitative methods and thematic analysis to explore the transition to kindergarten experiences of four caregivers of autistic children. RESULTS: This study identified strengths, supportive practices, and challenges that participants experienced fell under four major themes: importance of proactive and ongoing partnerships between caregivers and schools, navigating unfamiliar language and processes, the need for dissemination of information about autism to teachers and support from trusted systems. Themes highlighted challenges such as communication differences, unfamiliar school processes, community and teacher misconceptions about autism. Facilitators the transition included proactive communication, shared goals and partnerships with school. Yosso's Community Cultural Wealth Framework is integrated into the discussion of themes and the forms of cultural capital participants used to support their child. CONCLUSION: Recommendations for practice and research to support Hispanic and Latine autistic children during the kindergarten transition are provided.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1080/1361332052000341006