An Analysis of School Collaboration with Parents of Autistic Children

This essay delves into the crucial collaboration between schools and parents of autistic children, examining the multifaceted ways in which schools engage with parents and identifying areas where improvements are needed. The essay highlights the importance of special care and education for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), emphasizing the impact of parental involvement on a child's cognitive, social, and emotional development. It explores various collaborative methods, including communication strategies, mutual respect, transparency, and joint planning, to foster a supportive environment for autistic students. The essay also underscores the need for schools to provide adequate resources, specialized training for staff, and a learning environment free from distractions and bullying. Ultimately, the essay emphasizes the significance of a strong parent-school partnership in creating effective educational programs and improving the quality of life for children with ASD. It also mentions the need for schools to provide better resources to meet children's needs and provides key aspects that need improvement like communication, mutual respect, transparency, planning together and making parents participate in the problems faced by the children.

Are schools collaborative with
parents of autistic children

Table of Contents
ESSAY.............................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

A child’s education starts from school where there are many things being taught to him.
Here, entire growth and development of child occurs that is cognitive, social, emotional, etc.
However, parents are first teacher of children as they are one who take care of their child. But
children with special needs require extra care and education (LaBarbera, 2017). It is found that
child with autism have trouble in interacting with other. They show repetitive behaviour and are
not able to sleep properly. The symptoms of autism child are problem with pronoun, echolalia,
etc. Hence, it requires schools to work in collaboration with child so that effective education is
given.
This essay will describe about how collaborative schools are with parents of autistic children.
Also, in what ways they are engaged and not. Besides, what improvement is required in it.
ESSAY
explain how collaborative schools are with parents of autistic children.
Children suffering from autistic disorder require special care and education services. The
disorder is neurodevelopment disorder that is characterised by persuasive impairment in social
interaction. Evidence has provided the details that autism develops from various genetic, non-
genetic or environmental factors. These influences have a risk that a child can develop issue of
autism in future. It has been evaluated that parents and school collaboration for children
suffering from autism is really necessary. It shows repetitive behaviour in child due to which he
or she faces problem in communicating. Also, child start disliking others. Thus, school is
required to collaborate with parents so that child learns properly (Strunk, Leisen, and Schubert,
2017). Besides, it is essential for school to develop strong relationship with parents. Moreover,
they do not know how to collaborate with family of autistic disorder children. There are already
various ways by which school get collaborate with parents of autistic children. But quality of
communication is weak due to which children are not getting proper care facilities. Parents and
teachers focus on the individual child in their care, but understandings, structure, priorities and
norms at home and school may still differ and in some cases there can be a sense of helplessness,
disagreement and confusion about how to respond to symptoms. In such situations home and
school may be in conflict and responses to problematic behaviour can be inconsistent, further
exacerbating misunderstanding and contributing to very high numbers of formal and informal
exclusions among autistic children (Avendano, and Cho,, 2020). The relationship and
communication style between teachers and parents can range from, supportive of each other but
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disempowered or lacking in confidence to make adequate change to the child behaviour and
progress, to combative and blame focused, where each will blame the other for the child’s
behaviour and poor outcomes. Conflict between parent and teacher may share similar negative
impacts to those reported widely in research into triangulation of family dynamics.
Parents are also allowing to know about how individual classrooms are being involved in
meeting diverse needs of their students. In this planning program, schools and teachers also try
and understand about the experiences which families go through by living with children who are
been suffering from ASD (Clark and et.al., 2020). Schools plays an important role in lives of
families of children who are going through ASD. This understanding level and commitment to
collaboration of parents and school, they can create positive and effective educational program
for students who are suffering from autism.
The schools provide adequate services to children with autism. Hands on practical training
is been given to teachers and the other staff members o that better services can be provided to
children with variety of needs. The staff is provided with training to manage whole classes. The
training is being provided to help and assist children with special needs. These staff members are
being involved in dealing with children who have challenging behaviour, communication
difficulties, social skill difficulties. The schools make sure that effective and adequate
communication exists between parents and teachers, so that child’s quality of life can be
improved (Roberts and Webster, 2020). It often assists in lowering down behavioural difficulties
faced by the children suffering from autism.
The teachers are facilitated with appropriate communication skills over all area. appropriate
communication skills across all levels, from picture exchange-based communication system and
sign language, so that the needs and demands of children suffering from autism can be analysed
and evaluated. Behavioural support is being provided by schools to children with ASD. This
assists in managing the behaviour and cognitive behaviour of the children. The schools also
make sure that adequate resources are been used by them so that better support can be given to
children. They take care of their specialised needs of children with autism. It has also been
analysed that schools in collaboration with children makes use of systematic approach so that
these issues are not being faced by the children with autism in future. It has also been analysed
that school and other teaching staff makes sure that every student with special needs are provided
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with equal opportunities. This will assist in enhancing the cognitive and behavioural level of
students with autism.
The schools in UK and Wales are been engaged in providing extra support to students. They
make sure that better training is been given to teachers and other staff members so that high
quality of services is being given to students. The teachers and school staff are being involved in
analysing needs and demands of students, so that they can improve their well-being. Better
collaboration is required between teachers and parents. Time to time updates are been provided
to parents by school related to improvement in performance of their children.
This has assisted in making sure that no other issue is being faced by child with autism. The
aspects which needs to be improvised by school is that they need to also make parent participate
in problem which is being faced by their children. This will assist them in solving severe issues
faced by children suffering from autism. The normal schools need to have proper
accommodation facilities in place so that special learning needs of child with autism can be met
out. They also need to be engaged in making sure that learning environment needs to have fewer
distractions and children with autism can be saved from fewer distractions. They should also be
involved in making sure that the child with autism is not being bullied by anyone else. This will
assist them in implementing better school practices for dealing with children of autism. It has
also been analysed that better care should be given to these children.
The schools in England and Wales are been involved in providing adequate support to
students who suffer from issue of autism. Special educational program is being developed for
children with ASD. In this they have done collaboration with parents too. The parents of children
who are suffering from ASD, works closely with professionals so that they can identify issue
which is being faced by their child and also they make sure that early interventions are being
provided to those children who are suffering from autism. In this the parents make sure that their
knowledge about the issues faced by their child is enhanced. In this planning program the
knowledge of parents is also taken in collaboration (Pellecchia and et.al., 2020). This assists in
enhancing the student’s success at schools and also it creates an environment for ongoing
learning, communication and program. In the collaborative working it is necessary that parents
and schools understands each other’s reality and perspectives.
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It is evaluated that schools are effectively collaborated with parents. But there are some
areas where it requires improvement. With that it will be easy to deal with child and find needs.
Furthermore, it will be useful to work together. Thus, area is defined as
Communication- the school must communicate with parents continuously so that it gives a
clear understanding of behaviour of child. Thus, relevant data and info can be gathered about
history, cognitive ability, social support, etc. With regular interaction it becomes easy to make
changes in strategies and plan. Also, change in child behaviour is analysed. So, when a teacher is
stuck then it will solve this issue (Tso, and Strnadová, 2017).
Mutual respect- It also require school to respect parents of child. This is difficult task for as
it requires to work in formal terms. Thus, by working together with parent strategies can be
developed to improve action plan. It state that school respect parent decision in educating child.
Transparency- This is also improvement required in collaborating parent with schools.
Here, it requires to bring more transparency and work with it. This will be useful in removing
errors or gaps in educating child. However, having a clear transparency will help in sharing info
and data to teacher. Therefore, it enables in maintaining routine of child by sharing all info. It is
beneficial in seeing effects of educating child. There is no mismatch in specifying needs of
parents and education. It also specifies what social support is needed in and according solutions
are mentioned.
Planning together – It is important to prepare a plan with help of parents. This is because it
helps in prioritising needs and on basis of it providing educating. Besides, it allows in updating
process and info as well. By doing meeting with parents the concern and issues are solved. It also
helps in maintaining progress of child in systematic way by preparing reports. Furthermore,
future planning can be done as well by collaborating with parents. Here, parent expectation is
identified with timelines. The entire info related to autistic child development is reviewed. The
children autism may face other type of issues like they can start feeling low by comparing then
with someone else like some normal students. It is analysed that parent need to collaborate with
school so that child need is identified. The collaboration has to be specified with particular aspect
and criteria to be considered.
(Strunk, Leisen, and Schubert, 2017). Besides, it is essential for school to develop strong
relationship with parents. As teacher is having a limited understanding of child behaviour and
needs. It is mandatory to have understanding of child’s school program and also to have
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adequate understanding related to roles of various staff members who are involved in providing
high quality of services to students suffering from ASD. Here, it is found that through
communication school develop plan with children. They share data and info of child. There is
strong relationship of school with parent. Moreover, family of child is included in care planning,
education, etc.
Thus, these are some changes which can be included in parent school collaboration. It will
enable in bringing change in preparing plan and fulfilling child needs. With that strong
collaborative relationship is formed (Kurth, Love, and Pirtle, 2020). It results in creating a bond
with children family. The framework is formed through which autistic child need is met. As
teacher is having a limited understanding of child behaviour and needs. So, it will be useful
planning with parent and educating child.
From the above study it has been summarised that schools are working in collaboration with
parents in order take care of the children who are suffering from autism. It has also been
analysed that the schools are been involved in communicating with parents related to issues
which has been faced by their children. This has assisted in improvising the well-being and
quality of life of children who are been suffering from autism. It has also been analysed that
schools needs to make us better resources so that they can meet needs of children.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Avendano, S.M. and Cho, E., 2020. Building collaborative relationships with parents: A
checklist for promoting success. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 52(4), pp.250-260.
Clark, M. and et.al., 2020. How do teachers support their students on the autism spectrum in
Australian primary schools?. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 20(1),
pp.38-50.
Kurth, J.A., Love, H. and Pirtle, J., 2020. Parent perspectives of their involvement in IEP
development for children with autism. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental
Disabilities, 35(1), pp.36-46.
LaBarbera, R., 2017. A comparison of teacher and caregiver perspectives of collaboration in the
education of students with autism spectrum disorders. Teacher Education
Quarterly, 44(3), pp.35-56.
Pellecchia, M. and et.al., 2020. Randomized trial of a computer-assisted intervention for children
with autism in schools. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent
Psychiatry, 59(3), pp.373-380.
Roberts, J. and Webster, A., 2020. Including students with autism in schools: a whole school
approach to improve outcomes for students with autism. International Journal of
Inclusive Education, pp.1-18.
Strunk, J., Leisen, M. and Schubert, C., 2017. Using a multidisciplinary approach with children
diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Interprofessional Education &
practice, 8, pp.60-68.
Tso, M. and Strnadová, I., 2017. Students with autism transitioning from primary to secondary
schools: Parents’ perspectives and experiences. International Journal of Inclusive
Education, 21(4), pp.389-403.
Tso, M. and Strnadová, I., 2017. Students with autism transitioning from primary to secondary
schools: Parents’ perspectives and experiences. International Journal of Inclusive
Education, 21(4), pp.389-403.
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