Contemporary Issues in School-Based Practice for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder

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1 717161CJSXXX / Canadian Journal of School PsychologyMontgomery and McCrimmon research-article2017 Editorial Contemporary Issues in School-Based Practice for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder Canadian Journal of School Psychology 2017, Vol. 32(3-4) The Authors 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalspermissions.nav DOI: journals.sagepub.com/home/cjs Janine M. Montgomery 1 and Adam W. McCrimmon 2 Keywords autism, autism spectrum disorder, assessment, intervention It is our honour to introduce this special issue of the Canadian Journal of School Psychology on Contemporary Issues in School-Based Practice for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder. This special double issue is focused on research-based efforts to understand, recognize, and support students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with specific considerations for school settings. By focussing on schools, we aim to provide information pertinent not only to school psychologists but also more generally to other educators in school settings. Consequently, this special issue includes articles related to school-based interventions and assessment considerations emerging from research, with implications for school settings highlighted by both Canadian and International contributors. ASD is a complex, heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder, with prevalence estimates ranging from 1 in 69 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014) to 1 in 94 in Canada (Ouellette-Kuntz et al., 2014), affecting approximately 1% to 1.5% of the student population (Ghali et al., 2014). Despite common impairment criteria for social communication, and restricted and/or repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013), the severity and type of impairments vary widely from student to student, as implied with a spectrum approach. Indeed, many readers are likely familiar with the following saying: If you ve met one person with autism, you ve met one person with autism, clearly reflecting the diversity of people on the spectrum. While this adage highlights the heterogeneity on 1 University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada 2 University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada Corresponding Author: Janine M. Montgomery, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba, P513 Duff Roblin Bldg., 190 Dysart Road, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2. Janine.Montgomery@umanitoba.ca

2 188 Canadian Journal of School Psychology 32(3-4) the spectrum and suggests a need to personalize educational approaches to the specific individual, the immense body of research on ASD provides insight into potential commonalities that may be useful for providing supportive educational settings. While the core impairments in ASD impede everyday functioning across home, school, and work settings across the life span (APA, 2013), school-age students experience increasingly complex peer social demands as they develop, with peer relationships becoming particularly and increasingly important, yet also particularly challenging for students with ASD (Fabes, Martin, & Hanish, 2009) given core social and communication impairments. Moreover, the relatively recent surge of ASD research and information produced in the last decade has increased awareness and diagnosis of more subtle presentations that may have been missed prior to considerations of high-functioning forms of ASD. Consequently, educators are increasingly challenged to meet the needs of this diverse, unique, and rapidly increasing student population in classrooms, despite limited pre-service training specific to ASD (Morrier, Hess, & Heflin, 2011; National Research Council, 2001). While many students with ASD have historically been placed in alternate educational settings, Canadian schools tend to adopt Inclusive practices where most children with ASD spend all or some of their time in regular classrooms. While it is encouraging that students with ASD are now routinely included with peers in the classroom, educators report that they are underprepared to support these students academic and/or social-emotional concerns (Barnhill, Polloway, & Sumutka, 2011). Given this demand, the aim of this special issue is to highlight research directly related to both academic and social-emotional interventions in school settings with a particular focus on assessment and identification issues pertinent to school psychologists and educators. Moreover, authors for each paper in this issue suggest potential implications of research presented for school settings, which we anticipate will be a particularly useful aspect of papers in this collection. The special issue opens with a contribution from Australian researchers, Stokes and colleagues. Despite the recognized need for empirical research on school interventions for students with ASD, the extant literature has been largely overlooked teacher perspectives and information on interventions routinely used in schools. The authors directly address this gap with a qualitative study gathering information from both a principal and teacher in each of 29 schools. School staff were asked to describe interventions that they implement for students with ASD in their schools. Principals completed an online survey and a teacher from the same school shared reflective journaling to provide further details on the methods that they employ. Results highlight both effective approaches and challenges to school-based intervention that may be informative and useful for educators planning intervention approaches in schools. Behavioural paradigms and single cases offer a unique lens to understand individuals with ASD and studies using behavioural designs have contributed a large evidence base to the literature. New Zealand researchers, Waddington and colleagues, contribute to this body of research with a single case study design highlighting an intervention for communication impairments demonstrated by young children with ASD that may interfere not only with interaction, but also with meeting basic needs. Consequently, they report on the effectiveness of an intervention designed to teach a child with ASD

3 Montgomery and McCrimmon 189 to use a speech-generating device to approach a communication partner to make a request in three distinct settings. They found that learning occurred best in the school environment, while the same intervention targeted in home and clinical settings was less effective. These findings have clear implications for school-based interventions which educators and school psychologists alike may find enlightening. In light of importance of understanding optimal learning and instructional practices, Bebko and colleagues report on two studies investigating the effectiveness of unique mnemonic interventions for memory problems in students with ASD, given the wide ranging social and educational implications of memory impairments presenting in this group. Results show enhanced rehearsal strategy use by participants via a focused teaching session (Study 1) and across multiple teaching sessions (Study 2) and propose a practical structure and timing considerations for interventions of this nature, which educators and school psychologists alike may find useful for their own programming. While general interventions for ASD are clearly of interest to educators, students with ASD are particularly vulnerable to bullying given their difficulties understanding and interacting in social and emotional situations (Schroeder, Cappadocia, Bebko, Pepler, & Weiss, 2014). To highlight this concern, Altomare and colleagues share results from a qualitative study investigating reported coping strategies used by students with ASD in response to bullying by peers. The authors use a novel cartoon paradigm to explore bullying experiences and coping approaches and found various strategies employed by respondents, with mixed success. This research is consistent with previous studies showing that students with ASD (and especially those without cognitive disability) experience much more frequent peer victimization than other students, even those with other disabilities (Twyman et al., 2010). The results highlight unique challenges encountered in this particular population and suggest potential strategies for school psychologists and educators to address bulling and provides suggestions for strategy building. While intervention research is critical to enhance knowledge of evidence-based practice for students with ASD, knowing more about the characteristics and relations among skills contributing to social competence may be important for those who design and implement social-emotional interventions for students with ASD. Berard and colleagues contribute important information about the social competence of students with ASD using a novel, yet timely, approach to conceptualize the role of self-regulation, other executive functions, and aspects drawn from social-emotional learning (SEL) approaches to social competence. Educators will find information on the relations between student social competence, executive function, and SEL informative in understanding subskills related to social success. Consequently, the authors suggest potential educational implications of their research, highlighting school-based intervention targets and suggesting that executive function intervention may be critical for improving social competence, particularly for high functioning individuals with ASD. To further highlight social-emotional characteristics in adolescents (aged 13-17) with ASD, Boily, Kingston, and Montgomery compare the emotional intelligence (EI) of teens with high functioning forms of ASD with those of typically developing teens. Previous research examining EI in ASD has indicated that younger children (ages 8-12) with ASD do not demonstrate impairments in trait EI (McCrimmon,

4 190 Canadian Journal of School Psychology 32(3-4) Matchullis, & Altomare, 2016), while young adults (16-21) demonstrate intact reasoning skills related to emotional situations and information (ability EI), but trait EI was significantly impaired (Montgomery, McCrimmon, Schwean, & Saklofske, 2010). Boily and colleagues found that teens with ASD demonstrated impairments in both forms of EI when compared with typically developing peers, and findings suggest that this may reflect increased social-emotional demands emerging in adolescence that may be particularly amenable to intervention. Finally, the authors provide information on potential considerations for school-based interventions. With regard to assessment, Cohen and colleagues describe unique, previously undocumented atypical symptom profiles emerging from a large-scale study of the Pervasive Developmental Disorders Behaviour Inventory (PDDBI; Cohen & Sudhalter, 2005) in school settings. They outline measurement considerations, unique and atypical ASD profiles, and other implications for measurement, assessment, diagnosis, and practical work with individuals with ASD. Furthermore, this article provides increased evidence of previously unacknowledged diversity that holds promise to enrich understanding of variations on the autism spectrum. Finally, this special edition closes with a book review of a 2016 book titled In a Different Key: The Story of Autism by Donovan and Zucker. Smith and Duguay highlight content illustrating how the historical context and research developments that have influenced clinical, research, and public perceptions across the decades. The reviewers suggest that the history provided through engaging and moving stories recounting the experiences of individuals, families, advocate, and researcher may be particularly thought-provoking for educators hoping to more fully understand people on the autism spectrum. In summary, this special issue reflects a wide variety of assessment and intervention considerations for school psychologists and educators working with students who have an ASD. We are very grateful to the researchers represented in this special double issue, not only for their contributions to this volume, but also for their commitment to research and service for students with ASD and school staff. We anticipate the practical focus highlighted by contributors to this edition will provide helpful information to enhance understanding and services for students with ASD. Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. References American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing. doi: /appi. books

5 Montgomery and McCrimmon 191 Barnhill, G. P., Polloway, E. A., & Sumutka, B. M. (2011). A survey of personnel preparation practices in autism spectrum disorders. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 26, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014). Community report on autism. Retrieved from Cohen, I. L., & Sudhalter, V. (2005). The PDD Behavior Inventory. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. Fabes, R. A., Martin, C. L., & Hanish, L. D. (2009). Children s behaviors and interactions with peers. In K. H. Rubin, W. M. Bukowski & B. Laursen (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships, and groups (pp ). New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Ghali, L., Dudley, C., Dutton, D., Zwicker, J., McMorris, C., Emery, J. C.,...Clarke, M. (2014). Laying the foundation for policy: Measuring local prevalence for autism spectrum disorder. Calgary: University of Calgary School of Public Policy. McCrimmon, A. W., Matchullis, R. L., & Altomare, A. A. (2016). Resilience and emotional intelligence in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 19, doi: / Montgomery, J. M., McCrimmon, A. W., Schwean, V. L., & Saklofske, D. H. (2010). Emotional intelligence in Asperger syndrome: Implications of dissonance between cognition and affect. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 45, Morrier, M. J., Hess, K. L., & Heflin, L. J. (2011). Teacher training for implementation of teaching strategies for students with autism spectrum disorders. Teacher Education and Special Education, 34, National Research Council. (2001). Educating children with autism (Committee on Educational Interventions for Children With Autism, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Ouellette-Kuntz, H., Coo, H., Lam, M., Breitenbach, M. M., Hennessey, P. E., Jackman, P. D.,... Chung, A. M. (2014). The changing prevalence of autism in three regions of Canada. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44, Schroeder, J. H., Cappadocia, M. C., Bebko, J. M., Pepler, D. J., & Weiss, J. A. (2014). Shedding light on a pervasive problem: A review of research on bullying experiences among children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44, Twyman, K. A., Saylor, C. F., Saia, D., Macias, M. M., Taylor, L. A., & Spratt, E. (2010). Bullying and ostracism experiences in children with special health care needs. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 31, 1-8. doi: /dbp.0b013e3181c828c8 Author Biographies Janine M. Montgomery is an associate professor in the School Psychology program at the University of Manitoba and a C. Psych Candidate in the Province of Manitoba, Canada. Janine leads research in the Social Cognition Lab and her research interests relate to social cognition, social emotional learning, autism spectrum disorders, and emotional intelligence. janine. montgomery@umanitoba.ca Adam W. McCrimmon is a registered psychologist and an associate professor in the School and Applied Child Psychology Program at the University of Calgary where he directs the Autism Spectrum Education, Research, and Training (ASERT) lab. His research interests include autism spectrum disorder and cognition, social-emotional development, social skills, and mental health. awmccrim@ucalgary.ca