Autism Spectrum Disorders impact all aspects of the person’s experience as lifelong condition, including how they learn. Such autistic children and young people share common education needs with all others and are entitle to appropriate education. However, they have specific and special needs regarding the characteristic difficulties in autism in communication, social understanding, inflexibility abd sensory processing. Education is the key intervention for this group, and meaningful access to effective education is crutial.
Due to the diverse autism spectrum, no single educational intervention is effective for all; educators need a range of skills and strategies. Providing such education is challenging across Europe, particularly within Croatia, Poland and North Macedonia. Project partners, in previous projects, have identified good practice but also significant training/development needs. This project focuses on developing training to support effective teaching to ensure the inclusion of autistic learners within this region.
The project brings together universities, schools, autism professionals and NGOs across Europe to:
- Map country-specific and EU-wide good practice and areas needing development regarding educational inclusion of autistic children within diverse European states (focus on Croatia, North Macedonia and Poland);
- Develop a locally appropriate model training programme and materials for specialist educators supporting the educational inclusion of autistic children;
- Use these materials to pilot the training with specialist educators from mainstream/special schools across the targeted areas;
- Evaluate the appropriateness of the materials and impact of the training on teacher’s skills and practice;
- Share the programme and materials with stakeholders and make recommendations to policy-makers in these regions/across Europe.
Those involved come from various backgrounds – both national and cultural – and have a wide set of skills. The project coordinator, the University of Northampton works closely with all the other partners: Target Autism (UK), the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Science of the University of Zagreb and the Centar za Autizam (Croatia), the Pedagogical University of Kraków (Poland), the Association for improving the Life of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sina Svetulka and the Special School Dr Zaltan Sremec (North Macedonia) and Autism-Europe (Belgium).
Autism-Europe takes lead on the Dissemination and the Policy Recommendations Workpackages and co-leads the Impact and Sustainability one, apart from taking responsibility for the forth international multiplier event, which will be held in Brussels in 2020.
The partnership will be supported by an advisory group comprising individuals on the autism spectrum, parents and professionals, and has been designed to ensure that key stakeholders are actively involved in designing the project at all stages to ensure relevance and appropriateness.
About the Erasmus+ Programme
Erasmus+ is the EU’s programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. Its budget of €14.7 billion will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, gain experience, and volunteer abroad.
About the Train-ASD project
The Erasmus+ project Train-ASD empowers specialist teachers and other professionals to support the effective inclusion of children on the autism spectrum in education by providing them with vocational training on alternative systems of communication. The Train-ASD e-Learning platform includes state of the art learning practices and uses a modern approach to the systematic observation and assessment of autistic pupils. This two-year project, launched in 2018, is led by the University of Macedonia and includes four other partner organisations from Greece, Romania and Belgium. |
The right to education is key to ensuring that people with autism spectrum disorders develop their full potential and are included in society. Legal instruments exist at international, European and national level to provide children with autism with education adapted to their specific needs. States must guarantee the effective exercise of the right to education. Special schools should be linked to mainstream schools and transition between mainstream and special schools should be encouraged because the child’s situation may require both Education should be adapted. This also means that, in addition to teaching academic skills, the education of people with autism should include preparation for independent living, adaptive behaviours and social skills. Adaptive skills are critical factors in determining the supports the person needs for success in school,work, community and home environments.
Adult education should provide the maximum range of opportunities and should include not just special education or participation in mainstream adult education programmes but also training in basic skills, self management, life skills at any age (no retirement) Autism-Europe has published a series of factsheets and toolkits to help self-advocates.
Autism-Europe and the Council of Europe’s landmark resolution on the right to education Autism-Europe also successfully submitted the first collective complaint to the Council of Europe against France in 2003. More information
Autism-Europe, especially Europe
https://www.autismeurope.org/what-we-do/areas-of-action/education/
Collaboration in Education – Working Together for Positive Outcomes
In the educational setting, in order for families of autistic children to feel understood, supported, and experience success, they need a village around them. They need to collaborate with teachers, educational assistants, school based teams and community partners. Think of the TEAM acronym:
T – Together E – Everyone A – Achieves M – More
For collaboration to happen, people have to feel that by working together they will achieve a better outcome than if they worked alone, even if the outcome is different than what they originally originally imagined.
Why is collaboration so important? This quote from Ted Wachtel from the International Institute for Collaborative Practices says it best:
“Human beings are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes in their behavior when those in positions of authority do things with them rather than to them or for them.”
No one person knows all of the information. Everyone relies on different perspectives and expertise to support autistic students and their families. Autistic students need autonomy and the opportunity to make their own choices so that they feel they are making decisions, to the best of their ability, that are meaningful to them. Students voices should be heard and respected.
The Difference Between Advocacy and Collaboration
Advocacy and collaboration are two different things. Advocacy is spending time defending the rights of children to receive services and accommodations. For example, a parent may enlist the support for an agency or representative for an IEP or school placement. I had to do this for my daughter in elementary school and again in high school which removed me from the chance to be an active partner in her education. I was put in a defensive role in order to get her needs met.
Collaboration is child centered, giving parents a voice on placement and services. Parents and children are active in decision making. Parents know their children best and can contribute to a partnership by sharing information about their children, but they need to feel that they can trust the team before they will open up.
A parent can’t be both an advocate and a collaborator. Advocacy will interfere with a partnership.
Schools can take on the advocacy role on a student’s behalf. Well-informed schools:
- Spot potential issues effectively.
- Create increased acceptance between peers and educators.
- Create innovative teaching opportunities.
- Prepare students for the adult world.
- Provide family support services.
Schools should also be thinking of long-term outcomes such as:
- Transitioning from school to adulthood
- Building independence
- Extending relationships beyond the school. (My adult son’s current tutor went to high school with him.)
- Making community connections – How can a person get known in the community so that community members care about them and their well-being?
When students graduate, they may still interact with their autistic classmates out in the community. How have we treated them in school – with dignity and respect? Did students care about other students? Was there a culture of inclusion for all students?
Putting the Collaborative Pieces Together
Student Voice
The first step in giving students a voice is creating student agency which refers to the level of control, autonomy and power that a student experiences in the educational situation. Student agency can be demonstrated in the choice of learning environment, subject matter, approach, and/or pace. Students should have the opportunity to communicate their needs, set goals, and be invited to IEP meetings.
While there may be barriers for students to be heard such as behavior of concern, social skills deficits, difficult expressing themselves, struggles with change, not able to understand, and sensory issues, we have to find ways around these barriers. Some ideas for respecting student voice are:
- providing choices
- teaching how to choose
- accessing learning material in several ways – ex. talking books, computer-based learning, taking thepencil out of the process
- multiple ways to speak
- family engagement
https://autismawarenesscentre.com/collaboration-in-education-working-together-for-positive-outcomes/
HELPING PARENTS TO SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN WITH AUTISM
Providing parents with accurate information, effective practical strategies, is important in improving outcomes for individuals with autism and their families. However, such education has not been available everywhere in Europe. Through the work undertaken and the findings in the project, the videos below are the ESIPP key recommendations for policy makers.
EU Project: IPA+ Autism- Training for inclusion
Taking into account the diversity of the profiles of autistic people, as well as the current approaches and intervention models in autism that are restructuring support services and the role of professionals, the IPA+ project proposes a new educational strategy to qualify professionals to support autistic people in different contexts and spheres of life.
The project has brought together academics, multidisciplinary professionals, parents and self-advocates from various autism organisations from Spain (project coordinator Polibienestar from the University of Valencia and Asociación de Padres de Personas con Autismo- Autismo Burgos), Portugal (the Portuguese Federation of Autism) and Serbia (the Serbian Society of Autism). Those involved come from various backgrounds and have a wide set of skills.
Project partners have created and trialled a comprehensive level training for professionals who need to acquire the foundational knowledge to work with autistic people and an expert level for those who want to gain specialist knowledge and skills. The result is a three-month “Comprehensive” course (Level I) with 7 modules and a three-month “Expert” course (Level II) with three modules.
The training has a lifelong perspective, following an evidence-based approach. The final IPA+ curriculum and toolkit is freely available on the project website in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Serbian.
The training has been developped based on the findings of a literature review, as well as interviews with 48 multidisciplinary and international professionals through focus groups and a Delphi study with 28 participants (including people on the autism spectrum, relatives, trainers and professionals), both of which aimed at providing an accurate views of the needs and expectations regarding the curricular requirements for such a training course.
IPA+ curriculum and toolkit
Participating in the IPA+ modules will help professionals to grow in confidence, assisting them in making and implementing strategies to meet the needs of the autistic people they work with. Self-help strategies will also help them ease stress associated with their professional activity.
The content of each module presents the latest examples of best practices as recognised by autism practitioners and experts in the field. It is hoped that participating in the modules will help professional to grow in confidence.
The content of the modules promotes the use of positive strategies, and is based around the following topics:
- How to recognise autism;
- Science-based or evidence-based contents;
- How to support autistic people and their families;
- What repetitive behaviors mean and how to work with autistic people;
- How to design and implement individualised plans;
- How to interact with families and involve them in the care or intervention;
- How to supervise and evaluate autistic people;
- How to collaborate and communicate with other professionals;
- How to intervene with people on the autism spectrum;
- Promotion of quality of life: independence, social aspects, etc.;
- Self-care (or well-being) of professionals.
EU Project: DE-ENIGMA– Playfully Empowering Autistic Children
Completed in November 2019, DE- ENIGMA is one of the biggest projects investigating assistive technologies for autism, bringing together pan-European expertise to develop an intelligent humanoid robot. Autism-Europe was part of the team that developed state-of-the-art technical systems, based on Artificial Intelligence, to automatically detect and reason about behaviours of children on the autism spectrum during robot-based activities. One of the key objectives was also to test claims about whether predictable robot behaviour might positively impact children’s interactions.
Autism affects children in many ways, but particularly their communication and interaction with others. Childhood challenges with these social building blocks can have significant negative impacts later in life. Robots are thought to be a potentially powerful tool for supporting learning in autistic children because they may be less socially demanding and more engaging than traditional teaching options. However, there are still many unknowns about autistic children and robots.
The DE-ENIGMA project explored the potential of a commercially available robot (Robokind’s Zeno), combined with artificial intelligence, as a near-future tool for autism education. Focusing on emotion recognition skills, a key social domain, DE-ENIGMA has iteratively developed and tested prototype interactive games with Zeno. These games are targeted at primary school-aged autistic children with additional intellectual disabilities, limited spoken communication, or both. They provide a platform for studying how autistic children interact with different elements of DE-ENIGMA technology and how different robot characteristics may impact them.
During the project, the DE-ENIGMA system has gone through successive design phases, evolving each time as we have learned from experiences with children and schools. Since beginning in 2016, the project has developed from using highly structured activities with clearly-defined steps to a more game-like style of interaction that gives children more chances to explore emotion content at their own pace and choose how to interact with Zeno.
Autism and robots
Recent developments in human-robot interaction technology have led to attempts to teach emotion recognition and expression to people on the autism spectrum, using humanoid robots. Preliminary findings suggest that these attempts are effective as an integral part of the psychoeducational therapy for autistic children. The main reason for this is that humanoid robots are perceived by these children as being more predictable, less complicated, less threatening, and more comfortable to communicate with than humans, with all their complex subtleties and nuances.
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IVEA – Innovative Vocational Education for Autism
The Innovative Vocational Education for Autism (IVEA) project aimed at fostering social inclusion of autistic people through employment by developing a European holistic guide. Running from October 2018 to March 2021, the project was funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus + Programme.
People on the autism spectrum usually struggle to gain and maintain employment for a range of reasons. The most obvious of these is their inherent difficulties with communication and social interaction, which affect their abilities to understand employers’ expectations and communicate effectively with managers and colleagues. The deficits in executive functioning and hyper-sensitivity to sensory stimuli, such as sound and light, that some people with autism experience can also make it difficult to get, an/or keep a job.
Thus, the IVEA project aimed at hearing from autistic people what they think that lacks in their training. There are transversal competences that should be introduced to complement the academic curricula, including social and daily life skills and independence.
The project brought together universities, and autism associations, professionals and NGOs across Europe to create a new European Guide for the effective vocational training of autistic people in order to contribute for their successful employment.
The guide was the result of two different trialed training courses: one for people on the autism spectrum and other one for representatives of potential employers (stakeholders, staff from NGO’s, administrative departments, shops). Participants of these trainings interwove in a final internship for autistic people in the entities above referred.
Those involved came from various backgrounds – both national and cultural – and had a wide set of skills. The project coordinator, the Federação Portuguesa de Autismo – FPDA (Portugal) worked closely with all the other partners: Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal), Autismo Burgos (Spain), Mars Autistákért Alapitvány (Hungary), Intermediakt (Greece) and Autism-Europe (Belgium).
Autism-Europe took lead on dissemination and for the forth international multiplier event, which was held in Brussels in 2021.
