Introduction

The teaching of autistic children has taken place in a structured way in England. Despite the small increase in the amount of teaching/treatment resources in the last fifteen years, there is evidence that some children have improved beyond all expectation. By ‘structured’ is meant that a number of children labelled autistic have been provided with schools, classrooms or units with teachers employed to teach and treat them. Some children entering appropriate units and schools this year will possibly still be mute, apparently uncomprehending of the world they live in, and therefore likely to be totally unemployable, in twenty years’ time. An increasing number of autistic children are being transferred to normal schools at younger ages, and this are the populations which will produce interesting follow-up studies. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.