With more than 1% of children currently on the autism spectrum, three-quarters of whom are in mainstream schools, autism charities are calling on the British government to provide autism training to all teachers.
In an open letter to Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, the National Autistic Society and Ambitious about Autism argue that the current figures act as evidence that a basic knowledge of the condition should be required for those in the field of education.
Concerned that lack of training in this regard results in the marginalisation of autistic children, Mark Lever, the chief executive of the NAS insists: "This is one of the reasons that children on the autism spectrum are four times more likely to be excluded than those without special educational needs."
Highlighting the various issues which affect a child with autism, but which may go unnoticed by someone unfamiliar with the condition, Mr. Lever continued; "For instance, many children on the autism spectrum are so sensitive to light or sound that an overhead light or humming computer can be physically painful and make it almost impossible to follow a lesson."
"Simple changes, like to the seating arrangement so the student is away from the light or letting them wear ear defenders, can make a huge difference," he continued, "We don’t expect teachers to be experts in autism. But a basic knowledge of the lifelong disability and where to go for extra help would make a huge difference to their students."
Acknowledging the call for the inclusion of autism in the initial teacher training framework, a spokesperson fro the Department of Education said: "We want every child to receive the best education possible, including those with special educational needs or disabilities."
Elaborating on Send - special educational needs or disabilities - the spokesperson continued: "All teachers are already trained in how to support children with special educational needs as part of their teacher training and on top of that we have commissioned an independent group of experts to develop a new framework for core initial teacher training content - with Send being a key part of that."
"Since 2011, we have also funded the Autism Education Trust to provide training for early years, school and further education staff, and 90,000 have already benefited from this," they concluded in light of the recent calls.
According to The Guardian, research conducted by Ambitious about Autism established that more than half of parents had kept a child with autism out of school due to of a lack of proper support.
