Assessment 1: Critical Article Review

Benjamin

Williams - 110085362

Matching Children on the Autism Spectrum to

Classrooms: A Guide for Parents and Professionals
Lara Delmolino Sandra L. Harris

There are a number of key factors that Delmolino and Harris (2012)
outline to enable a good fit to be found for a student who has been
diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a particular
classroom setting, such as the compatibility of a childs characteristics
and family setting and how the values of the family and school align. The
article proposes a four level model for both parents and teachers to take
into consideration when making the decision of where to place a child with
ASD, which I will examine in turn.
Level 1: Values and Philosophy: Keeping in mind that the goal in
educating any child is personal independence and social responsibility,
the individual outcomes and how they are achieved vary greatly for a
child with ASD. It is important that the family and school find some sort of
agreement when it comes to assumptions about the childs potential and
the expectations and priorities when it comes to the focus of the childs
education. The authors identified five values that were consistently shared
by parents, teachers and administrators: ensuring instruction is
individualised, collecting data to monitor progress, using empiricallybased teaching methods, collaboration between members of an
interdisciplinary team and planning for long term goals.
Level 2: Quality Indicators: Treatment strategies are identified as the
main quality indicator that this article focuses on. Some examples of
strategies that have proven to be effective from other research include
the need for at least 25 hours of intervention per week, daily
individualised attention to ensure progress, a focus on spontaneous
communication and a proactive approach when it comes to challenging
behaviours. There is, however, no body of research available that allows
us to match individual children with an intervention to suit them
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Assessment 1: Critical Article Review

Benjamin

Williams - 110085362

specifically. Throughout the treatment planning process, initial decisions

need to be made about an educational plan however teachers and parents
need to be open to trying a number of interventions until they can identify
an effective strategy that suits the learner. The other quality indicator
mentioned briefly is staff characteristics, and more specifically how much
specialised training teachers have working with children with an ASD.
Level 3: Child and Family Specific Characteristics: Due to the
broadness of the term ASD, learners will possess many different
educational needs and this needs to be taken into consideration. In other
words, there is no one-size-fits-all intervention that will work for all
children on the spectrum because they differ markedly in dimensions such
as intellectual ability, the severity of autistic symptoms such as
communication and social skills, their chronological and developmental
age and the prevalence of challenging behaviours like aggression or
tantrums. In terms of family involvement, there is research to suggest that
when parents are trained in teaching methods and are involved in their
childs education it can have significant and long lasting benefits.
Level 4: Targeting Individual Outcomes: Matching Child Goals and
Strategies: It is important that specific strategies are linked to specific
goals and outcomes to suit the individual learner. Teachers need to
recognise that, while a particular teaching method will be successful with
some students, it will likely fail with others. It is crucial that valid and
accurate data is obtained and it will become clear if the intervention is
working by the progress shown in the data. The teacher should also begin
their program by assessing the childs skills and problem behaviours and
then build on these skills.
The perspective of this article is that of a researcher who has read
extensively on the subject and taken evidence from various other articles
to make their point. The voices that arent heard are those of the parents
and teachers who the interventions relate to. From a future educators
point of view, it would be beneficial to hear from a teacher how they can

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Assessment 1: Critical Article Review

Benjamin

Williams - 110085362

tailor their teaching and instructional methods to a specific child and the
ways in which they collect data on a child with ASD.
The strength of this paper is that it is very well set out and the use of the
levels model makes it easy to follow and look back upon the different
sections when needed. It is also very thorough and obviously a lot of
research has gone into its writing which allows the reader to gain a
thorough knowledge of the many factors that need to be balanced to
maximise the potential learning in children with ASD.
One weakness I identified in this article is that it mentions a couple of
intervention strategies, specifically Applied Behaviour Analysis and
TEACCH, but they do not give the reader any information as to what these
interventions entail. It would be of great benefit to elaborate on how these
approaches differ and the ways they can be applied to the classroom
environment.
The Department for Education and Child Development (DECD 2014, p. 4)
in their Children and Students with Disability Policy aim to ensure that all
students with a disability are provided access to an appropriate learning
program so that they can meet the requirements set out in the Australian
Curriculum. Children with a disability should have the opportunity to
participate education programs on the same basis as students without a
disability, which may mean that the school needs to make adjustments to
the program to specifically suit the child. In this way, the
recommendations by Delmolino and Harris (2012) fit in with the DECD
policy, as well as the part of the policy referring to educators
responsibility to develop, implement, monitor and review educational
programs of all students and implement any negotiated interventions that
will enable a child with a disability to engage with the program and
participate in a supportive learning environment (DECD 2014, p. 9).
Delmolino and Harris (2012, p. 1199), when talking about a setting or
intervention, tell us that, while quality indicators can help to ensure that
the program has the elements that research has shown are associated
with success, they dont give us any information about how we can apply
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Assessment 1: Critical Article Review

Benjamin

Williams - 110085362

these elements to a specific child or situation. In my professional

experience classroom, out of 70 students, there are two that are on a
Negotiated Education Plan (NEP) due to ASD and it is important that I
recognise that a certain approach to teaching could work for one of them,
or neither, so I may have to modify the methods I use so that they have
the same opportunity to learn as the other students in the class. I believe
it is important to not be discouraged by a failure with a student with ASD
and look at it as a challenge to come up with another approach the next
time.
The first, and maybe most important, way I will apply the contents of this
article to my placement is to consult with my mentor teacher and, if
possible, the parents of the children with ASD to ascertain the methods
and interventions that are already in place so as to best use their prior
knowledge to plan inclusive and engaging activities. When planning
lessons I intend to have a number of accommodations that can be made
so that the children with ASD will still have a chance to learn at the same
rate as their peers. This could include different ways of gearing down the
activities and simplifying them while still achieving the planned objectives,
or setting alternative goals for the children with ASD that are still
challenging but easier to attain. I will also explore different ways of
delivering the lesson and try different techniques to find how each student
responds the best and make notes on what does and doesnt work. There
may be different areas which I assess these students than the rest of the
class such as observing them working well with others towards a solution
rather than actually working out the solution.
The outcomes I expect are that I can engage the students with ASD in my
lessons and ensure that they are included in all the classroom activities I
plan. It will be interesting to see how much progress I can make with them
in the four week block I have but I will evaluate my effectiveness based on
observations of student engagement and interactions with others to
assess their levels of inclusion.

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Assessment 1: Critical Article Review

Benjamin

Williams - 110085362

Section five and six of the Disability Discrimination Act (1992) details what
constitute direct and indirect disability discrimination. The failure to make
reasonable adjustments that will likely create a disadvantaged effect for
the disabled person, whether it is intentional or not, is considered to be
discrimination. This is why it is vitally important to plan lessons that can
be adjusted as need be, whether it be for a child with ASD or just one who
is having trouble grasping the content.
It could be argued that the recommendations from this article fall under
all seven of the AITSL (2014) professional standards for teachers. It is
important that the teacher knows the students and how they learn and
knows how to teach the content in a number of different ways. The
teacher also needs to plan and implement effective teaching and learning
to include all students, create safe and supportive learning environments
so that all students can learn to the best of their capabilities, assess and
provide feedback, engage in professional learning, particularly in the area
of teaching children with ASD and to engage professionally with other
teachers, the childs parents and other professionals to do what it best for
the child to support their learning and development.

Reference List:
AITSL 2014, Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, Australian
Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, viewed 20th August 2015, <
www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-forteachers/standards/overview/organisation-of-the-standards>
DECD 2014, Children and Students with Disability Policy, Department for
Education and Child Development, viewed 20th August 2015,
<http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/docs/documents/1/StudentswithDisabilitie1.pdf>
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Assessment 1: Critical Article Review

Benjamin

Williams - 110085362

Delmolino, L & Harris, S 2012, 'Matching Children on the Autism Spectrum

to Classrooms: A Guide for Parents and Professionals', Journal of Autism
and Developmental Disorders, vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 1197-1204
Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cwlth)

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