Facilitating the Social Inclusion of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Responsive Elementary Classrooms

This study examined the use of Responsive Classroom strategies to promote the social inclusion of students with autismspectrum disorders (ASD). Qualitative research methods were employed to collect and analyze the data. The data were collected over the course of three months within two public elementary classrooms where two students identified as having ASD were enrolled. Both students attended the same suburban elementary school. Their classroom teachers were chosen because of their unique training and implementation of Responsive Classroom techniques. Within both classrooms students participated in five aspects of a Responsive Classroom: morning meeting, classroom organization, rules and logical consequences, guided discovery, and academic assessment. As an outgrowth of the structure in the classroom, the targeted students and their typical peers began to incorporate physical and verbal strategies that were conducive to social inclusion of the students with ASD. Strategies to support students with ASD generally fall into two broad categories of adult-mediated and peer-mediated approaches of intervention. The Responsive Classroom methodology incorporates the strengths of both approaches to offer students a learning environment that scaffolds students’ language usage and allows for generalization of skills across school settings. Implications for future research are discussed.