I may be doing this but i’m not aware of it: teachers’ familiarity with evidence-based practices supporting autistic children in Ireland

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ABSTRACT Evidence-based practices (EBPs) are recognised as essential elements of learning and teaching programmes for autistic students in Irish primary school classrooms. Through these practices, teachers can feel confident that they are supporting autistic students using recognised and validated research. This paper reports on Irish teachers’ familiarity with eight identified EBPs, highlighted as effective for use in early years’ classrooms and schools, to support autistic students with social communication competence (SCC). Through a research survey, the perspectives of 382 teachers are captured and analysed using a mixed methods approach. The findings are discussed and theorised reflecting Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory, and the importance of teacher professional learning and conceptual understanding of the practices is highlighted. The paper focuses in on the theme of teacher familiarity with EBPs and discusses this exclusively.