What are we targeting when we support inclusive education for autistic students? A systematic review of 233 empirical studies and call for community partnerships.
Valentine Perrelet, Aline Veyre, Léa Chawki and 2 others
PMID 40757974WHAT IT FOUND
Research on inclusive education for autistic students overwhelmingly targets child skills, not environment.
Social skills interventions were most common, while physical and sensory adaptations were rare. This gap limits true inclusion, as schools often fail to adjust the setting to support participation.
Key findings
01The most frequent interventions targeted cognitive-behavioral skills and social skills, with very few focusing on environmental adaptations or school-wide changes.
02Outcome measures were highly heterogeneous, with no single standardized tool used in more than five studies, indicating a lack of consensus on how to measure inclusion.
03Consultants with lived experience highlighted a disconnect between research priorities and practical needs, noting that current approaches often require children to adapt to schools rather than schools adapting to children.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The review did not assess the effectiveness of interventions, only their frequency and type. Therefore, it cannot tell you which approach works best. The quality of the included studies was generally poor, with 46% rated as low quality, which limits the reliability of the findings. There was significant heterogeneity in outcome measures, with no consensus on how to define or measure 'inclusion', making direct comparisons between studies difficult. The review only included English and French studies, potentially missing relevant research from other linguistic contexts.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was part of a doctoral thesis and involved a participatory approach with lived experience experts, but no external commercial funding was reported that would bias the interpretation of intervention types.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the prevalence of cognitive-behavioral and social skills interventions as evidence that they are the most effective ways to support inclusion. This review maps what researchers have studied, not what works. The scarcity of environmental adaptation studies reflects a research gap, not a lack of potential benefit.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →