In this study conducted in real school conditions, American researchers show that children with autism spectrum disorder are confronted at school with difficulties in adapting and managing emotions different from those encountered at home. .
- Both at home and at school, children on the autism spectrum have difficulty learning executive functioning skills.
- Some difficulties are specific to the school environment and tend to worsen with adolescence.
- Hence the need to offer autistic children an appropriate school environment in order to consolidate their chances of success, adaptation and socialization.
Concerning 700,000 people in France, including 100,000 young people under the age of 20, autism (or autism spectrum disorders) is an early developmental disorder of the brain, which notably affects the formation of neuronal connections. These heterogeneous and invasive disorders are characterized in particular by qualitative alterations in social interactions, communication problems and behavioral disorders, and are most often accompanied by learning difficulties.
Hence the difficulty for children who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to adapt and thrive in an ordinary school setting. In a study published in the journal autism, researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) found that children with ASD often have impaired executive functioning abilities (which control thoughts, emotions, and actions), which impedes their success in an ordinary class when they do not benefit from specific assistance. In adolescence, problems with executive functioning can worsen, finds the study – the first to examine how these skills are affected specifically in a school setting.
Impaired executive functioning skills
So-called executive functioning skills encompass a variety of key skills that school tends to develop in children without autism: the ability to memorize information, change focus in a flexible way, to break with a routine or to ignore irrelevant information are part of it.
However, in children on the autism spectrum, these skills are impaired, and the extent of the impairment may predict their performance in school and their ability to perform daily activities such as hygiene or room cleanliness. But if the problems of executive functions have been identified and documented, to date there has been no study evaluating them in the school setting.
However, as the psychologist and main author of the study Benjamin Yerys points out, “school can be a very different place from home”. It is also “arguably one of the most demanding environments for a child’s executive functions: children must manage multiple demands from teachers, peers and themselves for 6 hours with little This study has given us a better understanding of how school-age children with autism are impacted in a different setting and how we might support their academic success.”
School-related adjustment difficulties
The researchers therefore recruited 337 participants aged 6 to 18 and followed up over a period of 6 years: 241 patients had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and 96 patients had a typical development. By establishing a baseline, the researchers found that all assessments of executive functions, both at school and at home, differed between the autistic group and the typically developing group. In the autistic group, shifting attention or deviating from routine was identified as a major impairment, both at school and at home.
They also found that the older the children, the greater the gap between the autistic group and the typically developing group in the school setting, but not in the home setting.
For the researchers, these results suggest that impairment in executive functions, particularly with regard to school attendance, is a key target for early intervention efforts. According to them, it is therefore necessary to send children suffering from autism to school in an appropriate educational framework in order to allow them to develop their adaptation and their socialization.
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