Introduction:
In France the law dated February 11, 2005 on equality of rights and opportunity, participation and citizenship of disabled people, was a turning point in school inclusion of children with specials needs. Indeed, following the enactment of this law, we saw a notable increase in the number of children with ASD within french mainstream schools. (Poirier & Cappe, 2016). At the same time, the ministry of education presents a reorientation of school’s objectives. The aim is now to rebuild a serene and caring school. (Ministry of Education, Academy of Paris, 2014-2015).
Literature review:
To our knowledge, very few studies in French context involves this issue. Moreover, the generalisability of much published research on this issue is problematic, indeed most of the research are qualitative studies which use small samples. In addition, satisfaction measures are most often assessed by third parties, especially parents and teachers. We can also notice that there is no consensus between the different authors. Indeed, according to Strain (1983), inclusion in mainstream schools would promote the development of social skills of young people with ASD. In contrast, other studies shows that children with ASD have negative experiences in the ordinary environment due to a lot of anxiety-provoking situations in mainstream schools, like noises, unpredictability and high educational outcomes (Humphrey & Lewis, 2008, Ozsivadjian, Knott & Magiati, 2012, Williams, Gleenson & John, 2017). In addition, positive effects of specialized schooling were observed on the development of social and behavioural skills (Panerai, 2009, Reed, Osborne & Waddington, 2012).
Objective and hypothesis
The main objective of this thesis is to apprehend school satisfaction of childre aged 5 to 11 with autism spectrum disorder in relation to their type of schooling. According to the literature, we assume that student with ASD enrolled in mainstream school will have a lower satisfaction’s level in domains of school and friendships.
Methodology
Twenty-four children with ASD between 5 to 11 years old were recruited for this study.
We used a French adaptation of the QoL self-assessment scale, the Multidimensional Student’s Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) in its abbreviated form (Huebner, Zullig, & Saha, 2012). This scale is used to assess children’s well-being by measuring their life satisfaction in the areas of family, friendships, school, self and lifestyle. Visual aids, in the form of emoticons, have been proposed to help children with the choice of their answer. For each item, the child had to give his degree of agreement or disagreement. Moreover, semibiographical data were collected using a questionnaire for parents.
In this study we focused on domains of “school” and “friendships” of the scale.
Results
Autistic children rate positively their schools and friendship’s satisfactions. Moreover, the analyses reveal that there is no significant difference between the group of children enrolled in mainstream schools and those who attends special schools.
Discussion and conclusion
Our assumptions were not verified. Indeed, children in our study seems satisfied of their school’s experiences, regardless their type of schooling. These contradictory results with research literature may be due to the methodology that we used. Because here it was a self-report of children from 5 to 11 years old, which is quite innovative. Indeed, in almost all of the previous studies, satisfaction was measured by third parties (parents, teachers or educators). O’Hagan and Hebron (2017) has shown that the experience’s representations of children and their parents frequently differ, particularly regarding the importance given to social relationships. So, we can assume that these differences of satisfaction’s representations could be a clue to explain the differences between the results of this study and those of the studies in the field of Children’s with ASD well-being at school.
However, with our small sample size, caution must be applied, as the findings might not generalized. Indeed, it is an exploratory study and we cannot conclude anything about all children’s with ASD well-being in areas of school and frienships.
Words we have learned
- A self-report: Auto-évaluation
- Type of schooling : Mode de scolarisation
- Mainstream school: Ecole ordinaire
- Enacment : Adoption
- Enrolled : Scolarisé
Written by Salomé Perrocheau, Charlotte Bretagne and Mathilde Cheval
Bibliogtaphy
O’Hagan, S., & Hebron, J. (2017). Perceptions of friendship among adolescents with autism spectrum conditions in a mainstream high school resource provision. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 32(3), 314‑328. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856257.2016.1223441
Poirier, N., & Cappe, É. (2016). Les dispositifs scolaires québécois et français offerts aux élèves ayant un trouble du spectre de l’autisme. Bulletin de psychologie, Numéro 544(4), 267‑278. Consulté à l’adresse https://www.cairn.info/revue-bulletin-de-psychologie-2016-4-page-267.htm
Humphrey, N., & Lewis, S. (2008). Make me normal’ The views and experiences of pupils on the autistic spectrum in mainstream secondary schools. Autism, 12(1), 23-46.
Ozsivadjian, A., Knott, F., & Magiati, I. (2012). Parent and child perspectives on the nature of anxiety in children and young people with autism spectrum disorders: a focus group study. Autism, 16(2), 107-121.
Panerai, S., Zingale, M., Trubia, G., Finocchiaro, M., Zuccarello, R., Ferri, R., & Elia, M. (2009). Special Education Versus Inclusive Education: The Role of the TEACCH Program. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 39, 874‑882. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0696-5
Williams, E. I., Gleeson, K., & Jones, B. E. (2017). How pupils on the autism spectrum make sense of themselves in the context of their experiences in a mainstream school setting : a qualitative metasynthesis. Autism, 1362361317723836.