Inclusion or Isolation?

I happened upon a study, Involvement or Isolation? The Social Networks of Children with Autism in Regular Classrooms by Brandt Chamberlain, Connie Kasari and Erin Rotheram-Fuller.  It was originally published online in 2006, and published "hardcopy" in 2007.  It looked at children in grades 3 through 5, and how they viewed their social networks compared with how their classmates viewed them.  Children with ASD were compared to their neurotypical classmates.  Not surprisingly, the students with ASD were more socially isolated than were the neurotypical students, and this difference increased with the age/grade of the children.

The researchers looked at measures of whether the "social isolation," which was admittedly not severe, resulted in feelings of loneliness on the part of the students with ASD.  I think this was the wrong result to investigate.  First, I don't think the researchers necessarily understood what social relationships mean to children with ASD.  They were looking at things completely through the prism of neurotypical thought, so their questions were missing the mark.  They asked the children questions about whether they felt lonely, left out of things at school ...  These are not the major implications of social isolation for many children with ASD.  They might be for some (particularly for girls), but for many, many children with ASD, the more serious implication of social isolation is the resultant status of being "the other."  As "the other," the child becomes "fair game" to his or her classmates.  S/he then becomes the constant target of teasing and bullying.  Being socially challenged, they also have a more difficult time than most children handling the remarks that come their way, and the tendency to respond awkwardly, or in ways that amuse their classmates, "invites" increased teasing and bullying.  Not having a social circle leaves the child without "protectors," or even anyone with whom to commiserate.

The issue of isolation of children with ASD in inclusive education environments is an important one, especially as the move towards more and more inclusion in education gains momentum.  I would like to see more attention paid to this, and in higher grades.  If there is a difference between third and fifth grade, imagine what the results might show if middle and high school isolation were explored!  Most parents of children in those environments find those years much more difficult than the earlier years, when the peer groups are more stable and more "forgiving."  As the students age and the confluence of puberty and departmentalization causes massive social complexity, students with ASD become more socially isolated and have less buffering - there is no longer a group of kids who know and understand them, and who travel from class to class with them.  The students from elementary school are struggling with their own changes and transitions, and are rarely available to ease the way for the children on the spectrum, who are left in a much scarier, less predictable environment than they experienced in elementary school.

Before the education system gets any further committed to "inclusion for everyone," it would behoove us all to look at what this really means.  Inclusion may not be the appropriate educational goal for everyone.  We need to be looking at what will provide an appropriate educational environment for each student - isn't that what individual educational plan means?