Teachers and Parents Perspectives about Educational Problems faced by Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Purposely the intentions behind the study were to identify the problems related to educational
accessibility, investigating teachers‟ technical capacity for delivering adequate instruction to the
students with autism and the provision of professional support to those teachers. With the help of
the research findings the researchers were able to explore diverse kinds of educational
requirements along with social and psychological problems of those children. A total number of
15 school teachers and 15 parents of students were selected from the schools of autism spectrum
disorder. Purposive sampling technique was used for data collection. The developed interview
guides questions were different in statement structure but the purpose was the same; one for the
parents and the other one were for the teachers. Teacher‟s interview guide was comprised on
three themes (assessment tests, educational problems and curriculum adaptation problems). All
themes include five questions in each theme. Parent‟s interview guide was comprised on two
themes (Admission and Assessment Tests Understanding, educational issues faced by parents).
First theme includes five questions and second theme includes eight questions. Interview guide
was based on semi-structured interview guide and with open-ended questions. After getting the
responses the researchers interpreted each response in within technical sound boundaries. The
results of the study shows that parents of ASD children have not enough knowledge about this
disorder and they also do not attend their child IEP meeting. It was concluded that the children
with autism were encountering with a number of social and psychological problems that was
becoming hindrance for their smooth and effective education and lack in collaboration was also
found among teachers, other professionals and the parents. It is recommended that government
should hire some professional and make laws for access of quality education for ASD children.