Autism Through the Lifespan #3: Education

As the rate of autism grows, the number of children with Autism in school is also growing. For many children school is the first place where children interact with other children and adults to whom they are not related. And for many autistic children and their parents it can be a tough time. Joanne Migyanka is a special education professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Migyanka says the debate over whether it is best to place autistic children in schools specially designed for them or in “main stream schools” is ongoing, “Some people feel that it should be an all-inclusive environment, they should be with their peers who are typically developing in a consult model where special a education teacher comes in and works with the teachers, and then others feel they should be in a self contained classroom.” She remembers when she first started seeing autistic children in her classroom, “for the longest time, autism was considered to be a very low incident disability. And so we would just barely touch on it in teacher ed programs… I said ‘I have to know more about this.’” Listen to the third installment of DUQ’s nine-part series on autism. Additional installments will follow on 90.5FM WDUQ every day this week during Morning Edition at 6:40am and 8:50am, and on All Things Considered at 4:20pm and 6:20pm. All of the stories will be archived after they air at this link.