The issue of autism in education has been getting a significant amount of attention over the past few years (Tincani, Cucchiara, Thurman, Snyder, & Mccarthy, 2014; Linton, Germundsson, Heimann, & Danermark, 2015; Todorovich, 2013). However, both teachers and administrators have to face an array of challenges to design and implement a comprehensive autism program (Au, Mountjoy, Man, Leaf, Leaf, Taubman, & McEachin, 2015; Schultz, Sreckovic, Able, & White, 2016; Ebbeck, 2016). The necessity to combine a therapeutic intervention and an educational effect in the program should be viewed as the primary challenge (Green & Dawn, 2013; Ruble, McGrew, & Toland, 2013; Lee & Haegele, 2016).
Herein lies the reason for the choice of the topic. Because of the correlation between the behavior- and learning-process-associated issues in autistic children (Bargerhuff, 2013; Stroizer, Hinton, Flores, &Terry, 2015; Cameron & Cook, 2013), it is imperative to focus on both the academic and behavioral aspects of the subject matter (Pennington, Courtade, & Ault, 2016; O’Hara & Hall, 2014). In other words, a detailed overview of the issues that administrators face when designing the program and which the teachers have to deal with when addressing the needs of children with autism must be carried out (Coman, Alessandri, Gutierrez, Novotny, & Boyd, 2013; Ault & Griffin, 2013).
Furthermore, the issues related to the learning environment and the impact that it has on students with autism will be touched upon in the paper. One should stress the fact that autistic children require a very specific setting in order to advance in their academic endeavors (Mayton, Carter, Zhang, & Wheeler, 2014; Stichter, Laffey, Galyen, & Herzog, 2014; Beamer, Yun, Wegis, 2014). Specifically, the instructions regarding the management of incidents or conflicts in the educational environment will have to be viewed as a necessity when creating the program in question (Healy, Judge, Block, & Kwon, 2016). For instance, children with autism will require an elaborate physical education program so that they can release their aggression and, therefore, will not engage in conflicts in the classroom environment (Courtade, Lingo, & Whitney, 2013; Roth, 2013).
A closer look at the issue of autism in education will reveal that the management of behavioral problems is among the most common concerns (Hart & More, 2013; Scruggs & Mastropieri, 2015). Thus, it will be imperative to develop a set of guidelines that will allow for addressing and managing the problems, such as aggressive outbursts, which are common for autistic children (Young-Pelton & Doty, 2013). Therefore, a comprehensive approach for meeting the needs of children with autism and autism spectrum disorders will have to be designed. Afterward, the assessment of the program must be carried out so that its efficacy can be determined, and implications for the practical application thereof should be designed.
There are several foundational methodologies for analyzing the issue of autism in education. The principles of the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) are typically viewed as the essential ones (Kearney, 2015). According to the specified framework, the process of managing the needs of students should start with identifying the behavioral characteristics thereof (e.g., aggression, dispersed attention, etc.), thus building a comprehensive teaching strategy.
Meeting the needs of autistic children in the educational setting is a challenging task mostly because of the need to embrace an array of factors that are related to not only the teaching and learning processes but also different aspects of administration, leadership, and management. Consequently, by reviewing the problem from the specified viewpoints, one will be capable of determining the crucial elements of an impeccable academic program for autistic students. As a result, the foil for their further academic progress can be created. As soon as the behavioral problems are addressed, a significant improvement is expected.
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