THE SCHOOL TRAJECTORIES OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER OVER THE COMPULSORY SCHOOLING

Background: Early detection of children with high functioning autism spectrum disorder is not yet accurate in European French countries, partly due to the French classification of mental disorders.  It follows that school trajectories could be chaotic.

Objectives: The aim of our research is to show the variety of the school trajectories and the consequence of this on the developmental process in term of integration.

Methods: Extensive interviews were conducted with 2 groups of families of young adults with ASD (15 with autism, 18 with high functioning autism or Asperger syndrome). The life trajectories of the children were reconstructed (diagnosis, child development, living places, schools, therapies, educational approaches). Young adults were assessed by the ADI-R. Results about the number and type of schools frequented during the compulsory schooling will be presented here.

Results: First results show that people with high functioning autism tend to go through more different places during the compulsory schools than people of the other group (F (1, 33) = 6.14, p <.02). Integration in regular education without support lead to difficulties: 61% lived at least one rupture in their compulsory schooling, like a transition from the regular education to the specialized schooling, sometimes followed by a new transition to regular education, a stopping of going to school and staying at home without education.

Conclusions: Our results show the need to better organize the school trajectories and the transitions over the compulsory schooling.