Opportunities & Barriers in Special Education for Children with Autism

Abstract

The neurodevelopment of children is highly affected by Autism and it causes social impairment, communication difficulties and restrictive-repetitive challenging behaviors. In addition, this group of children often face several barriers in availing formal education. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to explore the opportunities-barriers and their consequences in the current status of special education in context of Bangladesh. A qualitative design was used for this study. Data was analyzed through content analysis. There were eight respondents purposively selected from special teachers, therapists and parents of children with autism from two special schools. The result showed that school teachers and therapists were cooperative and helpful. Trained teachers, different therapeutic service, health education, primary screening opportunities such as vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general intelligence are helping better academic performance hence considered as opportunities. The fundamental barriers included lack of transportation, expensive learning process and therapeutic charge, lack of knowledge of teachers, social stigma, poor government support and infrastructures of the schools.