Autism is a spectrum disorder that affects millions of children and young people in many different ways. It is for precisely this reason that giving autistic pupils the environment they need in the classroom is so challenging, particularly when there is a lot of conflicting advice around.

Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that the evidence suggests schools are not doing as well as they could at supporting students with the condition. In December, concerns were raised in the Scottish Parliament about autistic pupils being unlawfully excluded, taught in corridors and shut away in windowless rooms. This followed a report by the charity Scottish Autism, which found that three-quarters of parents wanted school staff to have a better understanding of how their child was affected by autism, including their communication needs.

There are similar stories in the rest of the UK, too. For example, the number of autistic children being excluded from English schools increased by 60 per cent between 2011 and 2016, according to figures from the charity Ambitious about Autism. However, Sarah Parsons, professor of autism and inclusion in the University of Southampton’s School of Education, says there are positive stories to tell about school support for autistic students, too. The trouble is, we are not very good at pinpointing best practice, and then celebrating and sharing it.

“We need to be much better, as researchers, at capturing what is going on in practice, and feeding that into how we understand best practice,” she says. “There is a lot of great stuff going on and the research culture doesn’t always capture all of that.”

Beware simplistic solutions

Unfortunately, the good practice tends not to be the norm, and Parsons says part of the problem is the fact that the “loudest and most dominant voices online” are not always advocating the best approaches. “One of the key messages that we have to get across to practitioners is that there is no type of approach - no single way of doing something - that is going to work for all autistic children,” she explains, adding a word of caution about some of the “neatly packaged named programmes” that are available.

“One of the most contentious examples in autism education today is around ‘early, intensive behavioural interventions’, or EIBI, which come from the principles of applied behavioural analysis, known as ABA. It’s all about the acronyms.

“There are very easy-to-find dominant voices who would advocate EIBI for all young people with autism. Often, there is a lack of balance in that debate, because if you actually look at the research around some of these approaches, there may be indicators that, for some children in some contexts … it can be quite effective. But it is a big step to move from that to rolling out these programmes for all young children with autism.”

Many of the programmes have come across from the US, she says, where families often have funding available through health insurance to help pay for them. “We know that parents in this country have taken it upon themselves to find ways to pay for these programmes when there just isn’t the evidence to support that for their child,” Parsons says. “But you wouldn’t know that if you just read a lot of the stuff that is online. You need to take a balanced look at what the research evidence says.”

Schools have to make that call, too - and it can be a difficult decision when a child’s future is seemingly at stake. It can be especially challenging if parents are convinced that a particular approach is needed but their opinion clashes with what the evidence suggests and the school determines to be the appropriate course of action.

“Understandably, that debate can be incredibly emotive because there is no doubt that everybody wants the best for these children,” Parsons continues. “It is all coming from a place of wanting to support them, but it is a very contentious area, really, and difficult for parents and practitioners to navigate their way through.”

Small changes, big difference

While there is no panacea, there are a number of basic approaches that are backed up by research and that can, in many cases, help autistic children to thrive in school.

“It is about resisting the temptation to think there is something off the shelf that you can just pluck and it will tell you what to do,” Parsons says. “There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t have a badge that can be really helpful for these kids.”

Examples include the use of visual timetables, having clear daily structures so that pupils know what is going to happen throughout the day, and ensuring access to safe spaces or a quiet room.

“Regarding the special interests that a lot of autistic children have, one of the key messages here is not to be frightened to use them in a positive way,” Parsons says. “We do know that when teachers can incorporate children’s special interests within their teaching, that can be quite a motivating way of getting children engaged in their learning.”

It is important to be aware of “sensory issues”, she continues, since a lot of autistic children and young people can find “touch, smell, noise, colours and [weather events, such as] lightning quite challenging”.

“Schools are becoming more aware of that but it is certainly an area where it is worth spending time finding out from parents and from children what are the things that really matter to them in that respect,” she advises.

Surprisingly, one of the most obvious ways of supporting autistic students is often missed: asking them directly what they need.

“We need to understand things from their perspective, and we know from quite a lot of research now that children and young people are often very willing and very capable of telling us the kinds of things that really matter to them,” says Parsons. “Putting the student perspective at the heart of all that - understanding who that child or young person really is - is absolutely critical.”

In some cases, conversations with pupils and their parents or carers can also help to overcome the myths that may emerge in the school setting. It is easy to forget that, although an autistic child may not be interacting at school in expected ways, this is not necessarily a warning sign.

“We need to remember the different ways children prefer to engage in the school space - and that also includes how they engage with their peers, and where they feel comfortable,” Parsons says. “Friendship might look quite different for autistic children and young people, but that doesn’t mean to say they are lonely or unhappy.

“Some children might just prefer to spend some time by themselves. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are having problems with their peer relationships, but that they just need to have some quiet time away from all that interaction. It is really important for teachers not to make assumptions about what a friendship should look like, or what lunchtime should look like.”

One thing to avoid, she says, would be “forcing people to interact with someone when that might not be a comfortable space for them to be in”, even if it feels like something that would help them. “Some of these things sound very obvious, but they are sometimes not in place and it can make a really big difference.”

While the internet can be a rich source of misinformation on autism, so, too, can the world of popular culture - for school staff and for pupils. There are multiple examples of films and television series that feature prominent characters who have autism or exhibit traits associated with autism, and this has been something of a mixed blessing, according to Parsons.

“There is a research paper by my colleague Andrea MacLeod that sums it up - it is called ‘Why should I be like bloody Rain Man?!’ ”

Cultural clichés

Parsons cites other cultural references as double-edged swords, including: the character of Dr Sheldon Cooper in sitcom The Big Bang Theory; Channel 4 series The Undateables ; and the bestselling book and West End play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

“A sense of the diversity of the spectrum is not readily apparent,” she says. “Certainly, when I teach my modules on autism, students are often very surprised by the diversity, because you often don’t see that represented. There was a programme that [documentary film-maker] Louis Theroux did about autism a few years ago and that is one of the few, in my view, that does show a very broad range of the spectrum - but that is rare.”

Parson acknowledges, though, that even the less nuanced portrayals of autistic characters do help the general public “to have some awareness of the autism spectrum”. She adds: “Certainly the Saga Norén character from [crime series] The Bridge created a lot of discussions about what it means to be a high-functioning woman on the autism spectrum.”

Back in the real world, Parsons is working to help ensure that schools have access to better-quality research than they may have stumbled upon while watching Scandinavian cop dramas. Her university has established the Autism Community Research Network or Acorns (acornsnetwork.org.uk), which “is about acknowledging that research and teaching practice need to be co-constructed, and that schools and researchers need to work collaboratively”.

“The purpose of Acorns is to work with our school partners in the local community to identify research questions that come from practice, and we then do work around that and feed back to those practitioners,” she says.

Doing this should mean that the creation of strategies for autistic pupils becomes something they can be part of, rather than something that is done to them.

Chris Parr is a freelance writer

This article originally appeared in the 8 February 2019 issue under the headline “Tes focus on…Supporting autistic students”