CRAE’s Mel Romualdez was part of a team of UCL academics who wrote the rapid evidence report on ‘Identifying and supporting the needs of children and young people with SEND’. They have put together a concise, up‑to‑date collection of what research says about how to spot needs early, provide good classroom support and work together with teachers, health professionals and families.
While the collection of reports seeks to broader view, there is one section that is particularly important for autistic children and young people, and those who work for them.
This review of the current research suggests:
Diagnosis
🔗 Diagnosis can get delayed and autistic girls are probably under-recognised. To add to this, many behaviour assessments are outdated.
Teachers can tailor support even if there is not yet a formal diagnosis.
- To support the diagnostic path teachers might consider:
- Early years teachers could help by using the Classroom Observation Scale (COS) or the Children’s Participation Questionnaire (CPQ).
- For language skills, teachers could use the Direct Behaviour Rating – Social Competence (DBR-SC) or the Social Skills Q-Sort (SSQS)
- The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) aligns with broader mental health and SEND frameworks if an initial assessment of need is needed. For older children it can be self-reported.
- Digital tools. They might be helpful soon, but these are not ready yet.
Universal support
🔗 Additional support cannot cancel out poor teaching. Research on good teaching often identifies common ideas: it provides structure, breaks tasks into manageable steps, uses clear prompts, gives explicit instruction, uses language mindfully and praises and rewards.
On top of this, educators might wish to find out more about constant time delay, simultaneous prompting, visually structured environments, direct instruction (DI), explicit teaching, or precision teaching.
Across these teaching methods, there is an emphasis on consistency and routine, bringing children’s favourite topics into lessons, and ongoing progress monitoring.
Targeted support
🔗 Much research on target support for autistic children and young people is done in single-case designs with few children involved. This makes it hard to generalise.
It is noted in the report that ABA (applied behaviour analysis) can have short-term outcomes, but these might be because of learnt masking that can lead to the development of later mental health issues.
Reading & writing
There is evidence that autistic children benefit from the same supports as their peers: phonics, questioning, shared reading, support in verbal skills, and visual supports.
Likewise, for writing, Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) with picture prompts and mnemonics can be useful.
STEM
As well as universal supports, Model-Lead-Test, TouchMaths, and video-based instruction (VBI) were identified as potentially effective targeted methods for teaching STEM.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication
🔗 Research supports adapted phonological interventions for individuals using augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). These focus on decoding, letter-sound association, and sound blending to reinforce phonological instruction for AAC users.
Many thanks to the team that made this happen: Catherine Antalek, Susana Castro-Kemp, Fiona Dixon, Rosanne Esposito, Jessica Hayton, Elisabeth Herbert, Leda Kamenopoulou, Joanna Kolak, Daisy Loyd, Amelia Roberts, Anna ‘Mel’ Romualdez, Matthew Somerville and Juhayna Taha.