Educational Support Available for the Autistic Children - Essay Example

This paper gives an insight into the present educational support available for autistic children, with a special focus on the special education programs for such students in Saudi Arabia. This paper also makes a review of the studies that explored the teachers' perspectives regarding the integrative model for students with autism. To achieve better results from the various special education programs and therapies, the general and special educators, the parents of children with autism, the policymakers, and other associated professionals should bear in mind the various critical peripherals of an effective educational program for autistic children, within the present educational system of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“Autistic spectrum disorders are lifelong, complex, controversial, challenging to service providers, they can cause severe impairments and they are not uncommon” PHIS Report (2001, p.7)

     Autism is a form of developmental disorder that makes an appearance in an individual during the first 3 years of his life, and “affects the brain's normal development of social and communication skills” (PubMedHealth, Autism, 2010). This disorder, which is associated with impairment in neural development, is characterized by faulty social and communicating skills, and in the perceived stereotyped and restricted behaviors of a child. Autism influences the information processing within the human brain that occurs due to the changes in the structure, organization, and connection, of the nerve cells and the synapses (Levy, Mandell, and Schultz, 2009, par. Neurobiology).

     Autism is a part of the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASDs) that includes three (sometimes five, if Rett and childhood disintegrative disorder are included) clinically recognized disorders. These are Autism; Asperger syndrome that shows the same characteristics as Autism, but is less severe in the sense that the child shows no impairment in cognitive and language development, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (or PDD-NOS). The PDD-NOS is diagnosed, after all the standard diagnoses tests for Autism and Asperger Syndrome have failed to meet the required criteria (Johnson, C., Scott M., and the Council on Children with Disabilities, 2007, 1183-1186).

Autism can be defined as a disorder of “affective contact, as an organic dysfunction of biological origin, and as a neurological or brain disorder” (Marwick, Dunlop, and MacKay, 2005, 8). This disorder vitiates the functional abilities of a child to form appropriate social relations and communicate effectively with those around him, while also failing to answer correctly to an external stimulus. The exact nature of the cause of this disorder remains unknown, though many scientific papers suggest that Autism may originate from genetic mutations that take place within the human body.