The Relationships Between the Participation Levels of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the Time They Spend in Resource Rooms in Taiwan

PURPOSE: In Taiwan, 78.2% of school-age children with disabilities (28,779 out of 36,798 school-age children with disabilities) are receiving resource classroom services (Ministry of Education in Taiwan, 2015). A resource classroom is a partially inclusive setting and defined in the Enforcement Rules of the Special Education Act (2013) in Taiwan. Resource classrooms are for students who receive educational services primarily in general education classrooms but are pulled out for special education or related services according to their individualized education programs. Additional supports for children with ASDs in inclusive settings, like resource rooms, are very important, the amount of weekly school time they spend in resource rooms also merits consideration. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the relationships between the participation levels of children with ASDs in inclusive settings and the amount of time they spend in resource rooms.

DESIGN: The researcher used a descriptive, cross-sectional design. In this study, participants were parents or primary caregivers who met the following criteria to be eligible to participate: (1) a parent or legal guardian of a child between nine and 11 years, 11 months in age and (2) fluent in reading Chinese and lives full time in Taiwan. A child with ASD must have received a diagnosis from a pediatrician. Participants first completed the survey instrument named “Chinese Version of the Participation and Environment Measure-Children and Youth (CPEM-CY)”.

METHOD: CPEM-CY is an assessment developed to examine the participation levels of children and youth in three different contexts: at home, at school, and in the community by adapted from the English version of PEM-CY. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The summary scores of participation frequency and participation involvement at home, at school, and in the community measured by the CPEM-CY were the dependent variables; the time the children with ASDs spend in resource rooms was the research variable; and gender, age, and the extracurricular activity hours were the control variables.

RESULTS: The working sample in this study consisted of the 68 children in inclusive settings. The researcher conducted six multiple linear regression analyses. This model was assessed throughout the three different settings: home, school, and the community. To avoid an inflated Type I error resulting from the fact that six regression analyses were being carried out, a Bonferroni adjustment was applied. The new p-value for establishing statistical significance was set to equal 0.05/6 = 0.008. The findings of this study indicate that there are no statistically significant relationships between the amount of time spent in resource rooms and participation frequency and participation involvement at home, at school, and in the community for children with ASDs in inclusive settings. None of the predictors contributed statistically significant differences in understanding the variations in participation frequency in the three settings.

CONCLUSION: To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this research represents the first study to examine the relationships between the participation levels of children with ASDs in inclusive settings and the time they spend in resource rooms in Taiwan. These results are consistent with three common barriers to resource rooms in inclusive schooling: (1) an incomplete team of special education professionals, (2) a lack of professional knowledge, and (3) limited instructional strategies. The findings suggest that all the professions should work together as an interdisciplinary team to identify the barriers to successful participation and develop specific support strategies.

References

Huang, K. (2007). A multi-case study of inclusive schooling in taipei: Its current status, barriers and supports, and the expected role of educational leaders. Journal of Taiwan Normal University: Education, 52(2), 95-113.

Coster, W., Law, M., & Bedell, G. (2010). Participation and environment measure for children and youth (PEM-CY). Boston, MA: Boston University.

Coster, W., Law, M., Bedell, G., Anaby, D., Khetani, M. & Teplicky, R. (2014). Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (PEMCY): User’s Guide. McMaster University; Hamilton, ON.

Denman, S. J. (2015). Inclusive education in low-income countries: A resource for teacher educators, parent trainers and community development workers. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 62(5), 547-548. doi:10.1080/1034912X.2015.1074391