What clinical characteristics of children with autism influence their inclusion in regular classrooms?
BACKGROUND
This study took place in the context of recent legislation enacted in several countries--including France--and aimed at promoting inclusion of children with intellectual disabilities. It focuses on young children with autism and examines the links between the children's characteristics and their weekly hours of regular-classroom inclusion and intervention in specialised setting.


METHODS
Standardised clinical and sociodemographic data were collected for 77 children with autism, along with data about their interventional programmes.


RESULTS
The study showed that the number of hours of inclusion at school was influenced by the children's behavioural and adaptive characteristics, as well as by the socioprofessional category of their parents, although these factors did not affect the number of hours spent in specialised setting. Moreover, the total amount of time per week spent in interventional services of any kind was very small for some of the children.


CONCLUSIONS
The time spent in special-intervention services and regular classrooms combined did not add up to an adequate number of weekly hours for these children, particularly those exhibiting at least one of the following characteristics: low adaptation level, major behavioural problems or low socioprofessional category of parents.
Yianni-Coudurier
C
C
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department, Autism Resource Center, Montpellier, France.
Darrou
C
C
Lenoir
P
P
Verrecchia
B
B
Assouline
B
B
Ledesert
B
B
Michelon
C
C
Pry
R
R
Aussilloux
C
C
Baghdadli
A
A
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008282:Mainstreaming, Education / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012919:Social Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013997:Time Factors