Inclusion in Home, Social, and Educational Settings for Children with Autism in India—Enablers and Challenges

Abstract

Inclusion, for young children with autism, needs to be understood in the context of the home environment, educational settings, and larger society. The authors draw upon their clinical expertise spanning 6 and 30 years respectively, use two short-term and three longitudinal case studies of young children with autism to explore the meaning of inclusion, enablers, and barriers in the Indian context. Participants in case studies are 3 boys and 2 girls aged between 4 and 12 years at the time of their enrollment in the second author’s intervention centers across India. Findings suggest that, at the very minimum, targeting behaviors such as cooperation, reduction in inappropriate behaviors, reduction in impulsivity, and appropriate communication can be powerful enablers of inclusion across different environments. Additional enablers for a better inclusive experience in the classroom such as the use of fluency building in component skills, improving appropriate classroom behaviors, and specialized training for teachers and aides are discussed. Finally, recommendations for media, government, and charitable organizations working on the autism cause are presented in brief. As these are case studies, the findings serve to generate hypotheses which can be experimentally studied by future researchers.