Teaching children with autism

Abstract

The study aims to explore what educators know about autism. It attempts to analyse the educator’s knowledge and skill on how to teach children with autism. A qualitative approach was adopted. The researcher visited three schools: a public school, an independent school and a church school. In each school, three teachers, three learning support assistants and the head of school were asked to fill out a structured questionnaire. Apart from these, in order to obtain expert advice, the researcher also organised semi-structured interview with two tutors specialised in autism. An analysis of the collected data, using a system known as thematic analysis, indicated that although educators were using different methods to address children with autism, they seemed to have limited knowledge with regard to the specific learning needs of children with autism. Recommendations on what can be done to further improve the teacher’s knowledge on how to teach children with autism, together, with further implications and further research are included in this work.