Introduction
It is no secret that the education system for people with autism in the USA is one of the most significant challenges from the point of view of modern academic methods and learning processes. Thus, it should be recognized that over the past few years in America, there has been increased attention to helping children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) from parents, teachers, researchers, and government authorities (Paraskevi 2).
Such evolution of the training procedure for people with ASD is a continuously and intensively developing area that becomes more accommodating annually. Nevertheless, despite the studies, time, money, and other resources involved, the problem of the availability and quality of appropriate resources for teaching ASD children and their preparation for adulthood remains unsolved. This paper will discuss the need to focus on fixing the deficiencies, such as the absence of high-quality resources and skilled teachers, for young children with ASD in the context of growing up.
Analysis
Lacking Resources in Relation to Growing up Children and Younger Children with ASD
Teaching children with ASD in the context of their growth and development is one of the urgent issues in the modern education system in the United States. However, there is a relatively small success that stems from the number of resources allocated for such a critical purpose (Fernandes et al. 3507). Children with disabilities face multiple forms of discrimination, which leads to their exclusion from society and school. However, the overstretched budgets put a significant constraint on the possibility of meaningful interventions, such as teacher training and environment modifications (Fennell and Dillenburger 111). The attitude towards children with disabilities, as well as the lack of resources for their quality education, exacerbates the problems they face when accessing education.
While the lack of access to regular school is a severe problem for ASD children, the inability of the education system to provide a high-quality, inclusive learning process for children who have already received access to schooling is equally of concern. Nevertheless, there are still other, no less pernicious myths associated with autism in society – they lead to an incorrect distribution of scarce funds allocated for research, play a role in the formulation of erroneous social policy, and deplete the resources of families of patients and distort society’s perception of autistics (Fernandes et al. 3512). Therefore, the health concerns do not lead to appropriately structured interventions that help ASD individuals to succeed later in life.
Providing school education to all children without exception is one of the crucial tasks facing the country’s government. Implementing a real improvement in student learning is a difficult task in modern realities, and achieving it requires high-quality professional development of personnel (Fennell and Dillenburger 111).
Such an approach is bound to result in greater efficiency in adulthood for people with autistic disorders, while its absence leads to a deepening socioeconomic gap between the affected population and the rest of society. Most parents emphasize that as children get older, along with the lack of resources, the problems with accessing higher education and budget cuts for implementing quality solutions are most clearly manifested (Hasson 9). In particular, it is possible to detect a shortage of suitable materials and architectural, physical, and psychological barriers that permeate pedagogical practice regarding the inclusion of autistic children in educational processes.
The process of teaching autistic children requires a large amount of financial and logistical resources. Due to their absence, the school is forced to reduce the volume of educational services for “special” children. In addition, teachers working in the inclusive education system receive additional knowledge in short-term refresher courses, so they lack experience working with children with developmental disabilities. These factors negatively affect the relationship between the parents of autistic children and the school administration, leading to discontent, conflicts, and even confrontation.
Lacking resources affect the teaching staff’s quantity and quality, as well as the overall efficiency of educational facilities. In general, students with ASD need a unique approach and support from teachers with sufficient experience in the field of evidence-based practice to maximize their potential (Fennell and Dillenburger 117). For example, teachers must show their attention to “special students” and express friendliness in a way that will be comprehensible to ASD children. However, teaching autistic children requires both a specific attitude that promotes inclusion and a sufficient amount of knowledge, skills and abilities to work with this group of people (Garrad et al. 58). Thus, the problem in the spectrum of insufficient resources requires not only on personnel but on the education of teachers and their training for advanced communication.
In addition, the existing resources of lessons for children with ASD are often limited. Conducting a lesson with an autistic student may be more productive only in the presence of the teacher and the child without other persons. This helps to build self-esteem and confidence until an ASD individual is ready to be taught in a group. As practice shows, in reality, this rarely happens, as attitude formation is often compromised by the lacking training opportunities for sensitivity among teaching personnel (Garrad et al. 64). Therefore, additional courses based on the latest available data on the best teaching strategies must be created and incorporated into both specialized and general educational facilities.
The issue of adapting educational materials for children with ASD is not fully worked out, despite the fact that the standards of special education have been approved. This is especially true for textbooks, although there is an increased interest in written materials among individuals with ASD during childhood (Jacques 11).
The usual books for autistic children are not suitable, and special ones are not widely available since the spectrum of manifestations of the disorder is so diverse that it is very difficult to unify the educational material and its presentation. Ideally, each child with autism needs an individual approach and a set of training materials, which creates the need for educational facilities to differentiate classrooms and requires higher financial expenditures. As these individuals become gradually more integrated into society, their transfer must also be supported by external resources that share the accessibility and the depth of knowledge between transitions.
In today’s realities, an individually tailored training plan is necessary, which is issued to each child and discussed thoroughly with the involved stakeholders. It must be accepted at a psychological and pedagogical consultation, which is attended by a class teacher, teachers, a psychologist, a defectologist, a speech therapist, and any other relevant specialists (Saggers et al. 3846). This plan is a schedule in which it is indicated where what, and when the child will study and how it will prepare them for adulthood. One’s inability to adapt to society may lead to low self-esteem, problems with social adjustment, and unacceptance among peers (Lin 113).
It is critical for educational facilities to focus on a child’s communication skills in order to avoid such an outcome. However, the current state of program development fails to incorporate the essential elements provided by specialists into its framework.
When one sees other people receiving the rewards they desire, this observation has major educational and social consequences. If the attention of an autistic child is successfully attracted to the fact that another child receives rewards for proper actions and behavior, then this fact can reduce the time and resources needed for his education and social integration. Group lessons are vital in laying the foundation for the progression of ASD students through educational materials (Nthibeli 8).
The problem is that research shows that some children with autism lack the fundamental skills to learn through observation. According to research data, for many children with autism, the learning process should begin with intensive one-on-one training with a teacher or parent in a very structured environment and with repeated repetitions based on a behavioral approach. Unfortunately, such individual training is not always financially available and may not be supported at the school level. A child with developmental disabilities is likely to study in a peer group. Accordingly, parents and teachers need procedures that can make learning in a group more motivating for a child, and this includes vicarious encouragement.
The overall strategy needs to be readjusted entirely to accommodate different levels of disability among students. If a teacher is trying to use vicarious teaching in the classroom or any other situation, they should take into account the attention problems that autistic children have in a particular environment (Webb 36). A child on the autism spectrum may not show divided attention, not look at the person talking or at what he points to — this is one of the basic manifestations of autism. Attention problems can affect the ability to learn through vicarious reinforcement. In order for vicarious encouragement to be effective, the child must learn to notice other people, respond to different stimuli at the same time, and maintain attention for a long time, thus developing an emotional competency (Webb 36). The transformation of institutions must incorporate different aspects of this disability in order to be effective.
Conclusion
Summarizing the above, it is necessary to understand that the education of autistic children is by far the most discussed problem in pedagogy simultaneously at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. The resources necessary to implement the proper quality of students’ education and prepare them for adulthood are missing from the majority of the educational environment, hindering the future of children with ASD.
In addition, training courses for teachers that will incorporate ideas regarding both attitude and teaching techniques are insufficient for a full-scale transformation of educational facilities. These aspects reveal the need for a proper quantity of materials for training or the availability of skilled personnel. A highly specific environment must be developed to accommodate each individual’s needs, as teaching strategies for ADC children must be aligned with their social integration in the future. Teachers, textbooks, classrooms, and schools, in general, require a change that will adopt the latest studies on the efficient education of autistic students, and their current absence will lead to disastrous consequences in the future.
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