Supporting Diverse Students in Asian Inclusive Classrooms

From Policies and Theories to Practice

Ming-Tak Hue, Shahid Karim

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781000582291
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Comparative Education

This edited book is uniquely set in the context of Chinese societies. It deals with the issues of inclusive education in a Chinese context and examines inclusion from the experience of Hong Kong schools.

Like other countries, in Hong Kong, inclusive education has been promoted through Integrated Education (IE) and the Whole-School Approach (WSA). Recently, the government has introduced the induction of Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) in each Hong Kong school to help diverse students, especially students with special educational needs (SEN) and to develop inclusive teaching and learning practices. This book is one of the first to examine the influence of contextual and Chinese cultural factors in the field of inclusive education, in regard to how schools support students with diverse learning needs and SEN. It also offers an account of context-specific measures towards promoting inclusive education.

This book will help scholars and school practitioners in Asia in particular and in the West, in general, develop a comprehensive understanding of context-specific inclusive practices in education for students with diverse learning needs.

SECTION IITHEORY AND RESEARCH ON STUDENTS WITH SEN

4Autism Spectrum Disorder and High-functioning Autism in Children

Da Jiang

DOI: 10.4324/​9781032021775-6

Introduction

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) refers to a group of neurodevelopmental disorders involving impaired communication and social interaction together with restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests and/or activities (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder subsumed under the classification of ASD. HFA is not an official medical diagnosis and is not included in either the DSM-5 or the World Health Organization’s ICD-10. According to the American Psychological Association’s DSM-5, there are three levels of autism, classified according to the degree of severity of the associated impairments in intellectual and social communication abilities and behavioural symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Level 1 is categorised as the mildest (‘requiring support’), while Level 3 is the most severe (‘requiring very substantial support’) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Once a child has been diagnosed with ASD, the attending physician or psychologist usually assesses their social communication skills, emotional intelligence, and verbal and non-verbal communication skills. HFA corresponds to Level 1 in the autism spectrum.

Individuals with HFA exhibit no intellectual disability (IQ above 70) but may exhibit behaviours consistent with the diagnostic features of ASD in the DSM-5, such as social communication deficits, repetitive patterns, and interest fixation (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Although individuals with HFA do not have intellectual deficits, they still have ASD and require corresponding professional support and supervision.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, approximately 1 in 54 children are diagnosed with ASD. Of these children, 31% have an intellectual disability (IQ < 70), 25% fall in the average range (IQ 71–85), and 44% have IQ scores in the above-average range (IQ > 85) (Baio et al., 2018). Additionally, there has been a 176% increase in ASD prevalence globally from 2000 to 2016, with the most significant increase seen among children with average or above-average intellectual ability (Baio et al., 2018).

ASD is seen across all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups, and its prevalence in China is comparable to that in Western countries (Sun et al., 2019). Studies have found that the sex ratio of HFA is IQ-related. ASD is thought to be more prominent among males than females, and a sex ratio of 5.57:1 (male:female) has been found in cognitively high-functioning children (Margari et al., 2019). However, HFA is comparatively difficult to detect in females, due to atypical symptom presentations, social influences and methodological bias (Constantino & Todd, 2003; Russell, Steer & Golding, 2011; Van Wijngaarden-Cremers et al., 2014).

Children with HFA also display age-appropriate self-help and adaptive behaviour skills (Ozonoff, Dawson & McPartland, 2002). They often have the ability to take care of their basic needs, such as eating, dressing, grooming, and toileting, but they have limited skills in social interaction, sharing conversations and maintaining interpersonal relationships (Sansosti, Powell-Smith & Cowan, 2010). Individuals with HFA exhibit core features of ASD despite having average or above-average IQ. According to the DSM-5, the signs of Level 1 ASD are (1) deficits in social communication and (2) inflexibility of behaviour that may affect areas of academic, emotional and social development (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

Typically, the cognitive profiles of children with HFA are uneven. They may find social communication difficult, show inflexibility of behaviour and struggle with executive skills, but they may also show strengths in sensory perception, visuospatial skills and logical thinking. Despite the social errors that individuals with HFA make, they still attempt to seek friendships and establish relationships with others. Compared with individuals with classic autism, individuals with HFA have a tendency to display a greater interest in having friends (Toth, Munson, Meltzoff & Dawson, 2006). However, each individual is unique, and not all individuals with HFA exhibit the ASD symptoms mentioned above. Therefore, it is important for practitioners, educators and parents to cater to the needs of each child with care and flexibility and to support them in all aspects of life. Below I will introduce general intervention strategies for children with ASD and specific approaches for HFA.

General Intervention Strategies for Children with ASD

As ASD is complex, an intervention that helps one person may not work for others. Intervention strategies should be adapted to meet the specific needs of individuals with ASD, taking into account differences in intelligence, age, personality and other characteristics. Interventions for ASD children have the potential to reduce their symptoms and improve their daily living and social skills. These strategies are summarised in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Summary of the Strategies for ASD Children in General

Targeted symptoms and strategies	Examples	Reference of examples
Emotion recognition	The Frankfurt test and training of facial affect recognition	Bölte et al. (2006)
	The emotion trainer	Silver and Oakes (2001)
	Mind reading	Thomeer et al. (2015)
	Let’s face it!	Tanaka et al. (2010)
	The transporters	Golan et al. (2010); Young and Posselt (2012)
	FaceSay	Hopkins et al. (2011); Rice et al. (2015)
Emotion regulation	CBT-based intervention	Scarpa and Reyes (2011); Thomson, Riosa, and Weiss (2015)
	Mindfulness- and acceptance-based intervention approaches (MABIs)	Conner and White (2017); Kumar et al. (2008)
Social interactions	Peer training	Chan et al. (2009); Goldstein et al. (2007); Rogers (2000)
	Visual supports	Betz et al. (2008); Ganz and Flores (2008); MacDuff et al. (2007); Sansosti and Powell-Smith (2008); Scattone et al. (2008); Thiemann and Goldstein (2001)
Behaviour-related symptoms	Intensive behavioural intervention (IBI) treatment	Eikeseth et al. (2007)

Emotion Recognition

ASD is characterised by social communication difficulties (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Emotion recognition, the ability to discern social–emotional cues (e.g. tone of voice, facial expression and body language), plays an important role in social communication. Many individuals with ASD experience profound difficulties with facial emotion recognition. Training individuals with ASD in emotion recognition is thus a viable intervention strategy. Most emotion recognition training programs used today are computer based. The Frankfurt Test and Training of Facial Affect Recognition (FEFA; Bölte et al., 2006) is a computer-based training programme used in current clinical practice among children with special education needs. It trains individuals using photographs of facial expressions displaying the six basic emotions (i.e. happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust) and neutral expressions. The Emotion Trainer (Silver & Oakes, 2001) teaches individuals how to recognise and predict others’ emotions. Mind Reading (Thomeer et al., 2015) is designed to teach recognition of both simple and complex emotions. Let’s Face It! (Tanaka et al., 2010) allows individuals with ASD to study emotion through interactive computer games. The Transporters (Golan et al., 2010; Young & Posselt, 2012) is an animated intervention designed to enhance comprehension towards emotional stimuli. FaceSay (Hopkins et al., 2011; Rice, Wall, Fogel & Shic, 2015) is a social skills training programme comprising various games designed to improve affect recognition, mentalising and social skills. Several studies have found that integrating emotional recognition training with other treatment components is feasible and effective for ASD children (Lopata et al., 2010; Solomon, Goodlin-Jones & Anders, 2004; Thomeer et al., 2012).

Emotion Regulation

Emotional dysregulation is a common problem experienced by individuals with ASD. Unlike typically developing individuals, individuals with ASD generally struggle with emotion regulation and are unable to use emotion regulation strategies effectively (Konstantareas & Stewart, 2006; Richey et al., 2015). Although research surrounding effective interventions for emotion regulation is scarce, studies have reported that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a feasible and effective approach (Scarpa & Reyes, 2011; Thomson, Riosa & Weiss, 2015). The Exploring Feelings programme is a CBT-based intervention designed to reduce anxiety and anger in children with ASD. The programme includes affect education, cognitive restructuring and education in appropriate strategies to manage intense emotions (Attwood, 2004). This CBT-based intervention has been modified for use with younger children with ASD, with results indicating fewer tantrum episodes, shorter tantrums and improved emotion lability (Scarpa & Reyes, 2011).

Mindfulness- and acceptance-based interventions (MABIs) are widely used approaches that may also be helpful in treating problems with emotion regulation. MABIs differ from traditional CBT methods in how they define the relationship between feelings and thoughts. While CBT seeks to identify and modify maladaptive thoughts and unhelpful feelings, MABIs focus on helping individuals change their view of problems and accept their feelings and thoughts as they are. Thus, behaviours cultivated using MABIs are consistent with one’s goals and values. Following one mindfulness-based intervention (Conner & White, 2017; Kumar, Feldman & Hayes, 2008), individuals with ASD have shown improvements in emotional acceptance, impulse contro...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Series Editor’s Note
• SECTION I INTRODUCTION
• SECTION II THEORY AND RESEARCH ON STUDENTS WITH SEN
• SECTION III SCHOOL PRACTICES FOR INCLUSION
• CONCLUSION
• Index