Qualifications urged to teach autistic children

Few workers in specialist centres for the education of autistic children have any recognised teaching qualifications, a Department of Education report has found.

In its evaluation of educational provision for children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), conducted over two years, the department stated that those educating children with autism should have a recognised teaching qualification.

However, it found that in the 11 centres around the State where applied behavioural analysis (ABA) was used, few staff had any teaching qualifications and none had completed a postgraduate course in special needs education.

The report, which was presented to an Oireachtas education committee yesterday, evaluated five different services for educating autistic children; special schools for children with learning disabilities; special schools specifically dealing with autism; classes for children with autism in mainstream primary schools; individual children with autism in mainstream classes; and ABA centres where tuition is provided on a one-to-one basis.

The report said there was no definitive evidence to support the exclusive use of any teaching method but said children in all services, apart from ABA centres, had access to the subject areas of the primary school curriculum.

It was "essential" that staff teaching autistic children had a knowledge and understanding of teaching principals, but staff in ABA centres were "less familiar" with any approaches to teaching autistic children other than the ABA method.

The report did find that the management of behaviour was a positive feature of the centres, and that a "commendable emphasis" was placed on parental involvement.

In mainstream schools where 1,500 children with ASDs were enrolled, only a few resource and class teachers had a specialist qualification in teaching children with special educational needs or had attended in-service training related to ASDs.