Impact of Special Education on Children with Autism in Bangladesh

Abstract

The present study is an empirical investigation on the impact of special education on children with autism in Bangladesh. The researcher investigates the existing study contents of special education for children with autism and compares the effect of special education on life status of children with autism and their pair groups. Five schools of Rajshahi Division were selected purposively. Three schools were within the Rajshahi City Corporation area, one school was in Sirajgang and the other one was in Bogra district. For the purpose of the study, the researcher selected two groups as respondents. One of them has taken special education at least for three years and the other one has never taken special education. Both groups were selected purposively. Then each group of children was divided as borderline, mild and moderate. Forty respondents who have been enrolled for receiving special education and forty respondents who have never been enrolled for receiving special education, all the parents of those children and all the teachers of these schools were the respondents. Data were collected through interview schedule, interview checklist, observation checklist and FGD questionnaires. As an exploratory research, a sequential mixed method design was applied for data collection and analysis. The study found that there is no unified curriculum, screening tool and intelligence scale for children with autism and other disabilities. So, different schools followed their self- developed study contents. It is essential to make a unified special education curriculum, screening tool and intelligence scale and to bring major changes in the teaching techniques to ensure quality education for them. The findings also showed that those who have taken special education they are benefitted from it but progress rate is very slow. Parents’ and teachers’ collaboration is very essential for their development. So, it is a team effort with parents and teachers for them. The conclusion includes a suggestion regarding the relevance of children with autism.