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Promoting a Collective Voice from Parents, Educators and Allied Health Professionals on the Educational Needs of Students on the Autism Spectrum

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Abstract

Providing support for the educational needs of students on the autism spectrum continues to be challenging. Findings from this survey of parents, teachers and specialist staff highlight the need for collaboration between stakeholders who support the education of these students. The main themes to emerge were for school staff to be equipped with the knowledge and expertise to support each student in their learning, and for support with social/emotional needs. Findings highlighted the need for a transparent process for building school capacity to translate research and knowledge into practice by all stakeholders. This collective voice is important to ensure the needs of these students are identified and that appropriate support is implemented to maximise the educational success of these students.

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Notes

  1. Pseudonyms have been used throughout the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Beth Saggers, Megan Tones, Jacqueline Dunne, David Klug & Shanshan Wang

  2. Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC), Brisbane, Australia

    Beth Saggers, Megan Tones, Jacqueline Dunne, David Trembath, Susan Bruck & Amanda Webster

  3. Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

    David Trembath

  4. Autism Spectrum Australia (ASPECT), Sydney, Australia

    Susan Bruck

  5. School of Medicine, Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, QLD, Australia

    Susan Bruck

  6. School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

    Amanda Webster

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  1. Beth Saggers
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  2. Megan Tones
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  3. Jacqueline Dunne
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  7. David Klug
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  8. Shanshan Wang
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Contributions

BS conceived this research and designed the intervention; DK, DT, AW and SB participated in the design and interpretation of the data; BS, MT, JD and SW performed analysis; BS, MT and JD wrote the paper and participated in the revisions of it. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Beth Saggers.

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Saggers, B., Tones, M., Dunne, J. et al. Promoting a Collective Voice from Parents, Educators and Allied Health Professionals on the Educational Needs of Students on the Autism Spectrum. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 3845–3865 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04097-8

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