ABSTRACT
Until relatively recently few students with autism were provided with the opportunity to take part in further educational activities of any kind. Many children went immediately from autistic schooling into residential provision, often spending their entire lives with other people with autism. Whilst such a lifestyle ensures consistency and familiarity, it is a long way from the concepts of integration or ‘normalisation’ espoused in other areas of education or daily living. In their recent follow-up study of sixty-eight relatively high-functioning young adults with autism, Howlin et al. (2004) found that very few had received any form of further education. Fifty-three (78 per cent) had received no education after the age of sixteen, and only five had gone on to college or university. On leaving school most went straight into specialist residential autistic provision. A similar picture emerges from the review of other follow-up studies (see Table 8.1). Only 11 per cent of participants in these studies had received a college education, and only 10 per cent had obtained a degree or professional diploma. The real difficulties, however, can often be traced back to much earlier in school life. Many children attend specialist schools which are unable to develop their particular skills and interests to a level that allows later entry to college. Others, attending mainstream schools, may be provided with so little support that access to the full curriculum is effectively denied them, thereby limiting the opportunity to move on to further education.
