How confident are final year students with the speech and language interventions utilised for the educational and social development of children with autism in one mainstream school in South Devon?

Abstract

The aim of my research was to discover what speech and language intervention strategies are used in a mainstream school to assist children with autism, and how confident student teachers feel about these particular strategies. My method was to conduct semi-structured interviews with teachers from a mainstream school and online questionnaires for final year student teachers. This approach was adopted in order to position questionnaires for student teachers into a real context and compare their ideas about interventions to the strategies actually used in a school. After completing my research, a significant conclusion reached is that student teachers need more experience with intervention systems in order to be better prepared for their NQT year. I also found that teachers in a mainstream school have different opinions on the most useful intervention strategy, and that preferred choices depend upon individual children’s development. The implications for my practice are to ensure I am prepared for implementing various interventions, be flexible and take advice from fellow colleagues.