Psychology Department, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva, Israel.
National Autism Research Center of Israel, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Autism Res. 2021 Apr;14(4):699-708. doi: 10.1002/aur.2400. Epub 2020 Oct 1.
In many countries, parents can place autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children in either mainstream or special education settings, which differ in their ability to provide structured early intervention programs. There are no clear guidelines for how to make initial placement decisions and ongoing debate about the benefits and drawbacks of each educational setting. Previous studies have mostly examined placement of school-age children and reported that those with poorer cognitive abilities and more severe ASD symptoms tend to be placed in special education. The placement of younger children has rarely been studied. Here, we utilized the database at the National Autism Research Center of Israel to examine whether ASD severity, cognitive abilities, and parent education influenced the placement of 242 children. We performed the analyses separately for 1-3-year-old children who were placed in daycare centers and 3-5-year-old children who were placed in pre-school kindergartens. Our analyses revealed surprisingly small differences across special and mainstream education settings, particularly in daycare centers. Cognitive scores and parent education were significantly higher in ASD children placed in mainstream education, but these differences were of moderate effect size and explained a relatively small percentage of the variability in placement choices (<15%). Indeed, we found considerable overlap in the characteristics of ASD children across educational settings, which suggests that initial placement decisions are performed with little regard to the children's abilities. Given the importance of optimal early intervention, further studies are warranted to determine whether children with specific abilities and needs benefit more from placement in either educational setting. LAY SUMMARY: Currently, there are no clear recommendations for placing young children with ASD in special versus mainstream education settings. We examined the influence of ASD severity, cognitive abilities, and parent education on the initial placement of 242 children. While we found significantly higher cognitive scores and parental education in children placed in mainstream education, there was a remarkable overlap in the characteristics of children across both settings, suggesting that initial placement is performed with limited regard to the children's abilities. Autism Res 2021, 14: 699-708. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC.
在许多国家，父母可以将自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童安置在主流或特殊教育环境中，这两种环境在提供结构化早期干预计划的能力上有所不同。目前尚无明确的指导方针来做出初始安置决定，并且对于每种教育环境的优缺点一直存在争议。先前的研究主要考察了学龄儿童的安置情况，并报告说那些认知能力较差和 ASD 症状较严重的儿童往往被安置在特殊教育环境中。对年幼儿童的安置情况很少有研究。在这里，我们利用以色列国家自闭症研究中心的数据库，研究 ASD 严重程度、认知能力和父母教育是否会影响 242 名儿童的安置。我们分别对安置在日托中心的 1-3 岁儿童和安置在学前班幼儿园的 3-5 岁儿童进行了分析。我们的分析显示，特殊教育和主流教育环境之间的差异非常小，尤其是在日托中心。在主流教育中安置的 ASD 儿童的认知得分和家长教育水平显著较高，但这些差异的效应量适中，仅能解释安置选择中相对较小的变异百分比（<15%）。实际上，我们发现 ASD 儿童在教育环境中的特征有相当大的重叠，这表明初始安置决策几乎不考虑儿童的能力。鉴于最佳早期干预的重要性，需要进一步研究，以确定具有特定能力和需求的儿童是否从特殊或主流教育环境的安置中受益更多。
