Transition from secondary school to Post 16 education is a significant event in the educational lives of young people. The impact of this is further heightened for students with a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This paper begins with a systematic literature review which explores what is known about the experiences of young people with ASD during this process. Through qualitative synthesis and thematic analysis of the studies identified key themes were highlighted. These were ‘Independence’, ‘Role of the family’, ‘Purpose of education’, 'Curriculum content', 'Supports for learning', 'Concerns about the future’, ’Relationships’ and ‘The process of transition’. The review highlighted issues around the nature and perceived purpose of the transition process, and the opportunities that it presents as a learning opportunity on the topic of change as well as a facilitator for it. Two contrasting metaphors of transition as a rollercoaster and as a vehicle were also identified within the studies. The empirical research which followed, aimed to gain insight into students’ perspectives on the transition experience, process and their role within it. This was carried out via online qualitative questionnaires with Year 12 students. Questionnaires were chosen in order to provide an appropriate and comfortable mechanism for individuals with ASD to express their views. Questionnaire th responses were received from students in both specialist 6 form provision and th mainstream 6 form colleges. The responses of these students were then coded and analysed using thematic analysis. Several themes were identified within three super ordinate themes of ‘help’, ‘social communication’ and ‘environment’. Students’ identification of independence in terms of being alone and without help was a particular area of interest and further ideas around how their concept of independence could be developed in more beneficial ways are discussed. This paper also includes a bridging document which explores how the findings from the systematic review led to the empirical piece of research and considers the theoretical and epistemological underpinnings of the research.

In Singapore, there is a high reliance on IQ scores as the basis for deciding children's access to special educational provisions. Children with disabilities remain in the mainstream if they are perceived to be able to cope with the demands of the mainstream schools. On the other hand, if children were seen to require intensive support, referral to special schools would be initiated. This thesis aims to evaluate the validity of measures of intelligence and other selected indicators of special educational needs (SEN) for children with autism in Singapore. The first phase of the thesis involved identifying an independent measure of SEN. Results of Study 1, which involved interviews with the parents of 40 children with autism, provided support for the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health (ICF: WHO, 2001) as an adequate independent measure of SEN. The second phase involved the evaluation of selected indicators of SEN that can be used alongside the ICF, namely measures of intelligence, theory of mind, executive function, central coherence and cognitive modifiability. These were evaluated based on their psychometric and treatment validity, as defined in educational contexts. For evaluations of psychometric validity, two criteria were used: firstly, the extent to which the indicators were able to predict children's SEN level and secondly, the extent to which the indicators were able to distinguish children with autism who can cope with mainstream schools, from those that require special schools. This involved individual assessments with 52 children with autism and interviews with their parents (Study 2). For evaluations of treatment validity a qualitative approach was adopted to obtain practitioners' views on the extent to which the indicators of SEN were able to provide information that can be used to plan interventions (Study 3). The findings indicated that it was the combination of indicators that accounted for the greatest variance in the SEN levels of children with autism. However, depending on the purpose of testing and types of sub-group of children with autism, different indicators proved to have different validity strength. When the treatment validity of these measures was evaluated, measures of theory of mind showed the strongest treatment validity. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for SEN assessments in Singapore, and the assessment of children with autism in general.

Children vary in their capacities to interpret other's emotional states and to understand, express and control their own emotional responses. Due to their role as significant adults in children's lives, teachers can be argued to play a critical role in the development of these capacities. A range of findings which support this premise, in educational and psychological literature, suggest that a child's emotional development can be affected by his or her experiences of teachers, both in the classroom and within the whole school environment. Several studies have documented cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between categories of teacher-pupil relationships and child outcomes moreover, in recent years, numerous manualised and non-manualised school programmes posit teachers as active agents in preventative interventions which promote emotional development and emotional regulation. A selection of these is critically reviewed.

This research explores some of the factors which might impact on promoting the inclusion of pupils on the autism spectrum in secondary schools. The experience of inclusion for these pupils is often described as problematic, and that the general ‘top down’ information led approaches offered to schools to support their inclusion of this group of pupils seems to be problematic, failing to acknowledge the individuality of their pupils, staff, and the uniqueness of their contexts. This study utilises a practitioner action research framework in order to explore the experiences and theories about inclusion of staff and pupils on the autism spectrum within a secondary school. This research aimed to ‘grow’ inclusion within this context and reflect on the key process elements which supported any changes to occur. The main findings of the study suggested that it is possible to ‘grow’ inclusive practice and that a number of process elements were necessary to this growth. The significant process elements which emerged were; co-constructing practice and experience local to the community, explicit activity with reference to the process of change and development, and professional expertise relating to autism, the process of change and evaluation. Based on the findings of the study a model for future practice is proposed and discussed which combines learning from research in the areas of; autism and inclusion, school effectiveness, solution oriented and motivational psychology, and theory based approaches to evaluation. The model developed suggests that in order to grow inclusive practice, including for those on the autism spectrum, we need to move away from a simplistic standards/competency based approach. Instead what is suggested is that inclusion in practice should: have regard to and be constructed by those within a community, requires a process which has regard to both the goals and motivations of individual members of staff and of the broader organisational and social context, and that this requires professional expertise and facilitation. Discussion as to the implications of the findings of this study in terms of the role of an educational psychologist in this process and the value of practitioner action research in generating evidence on which to base future practice is also undertaken.

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Pupils with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), who have moderate or high intellectual abilities, have increasingly joined mainstream schools in the UK. Despite their intellectual abilities, these pupils may have difficulties in social understanding due to problems in theory of mind (ToM), which refers to the individual's ability to attribute mental states such as beliefs, feelings, and desires to oneself and others. They may also display difficulties in emotional understanding, such as their inability to identify the facial expression and emotions of others in different social situations. In this study, these emotions are referred to as 'academic emotions' as they may have an impact on tne pupils' school performance, achievement, and motivation. Given these difficulties in ToM and academic emotions, teachers and other support staff are likely to face challenges in order to ensure that the inclusive educational provision brings maximum benefits to the children themselves and to the school community as a whole. Informed by the ecological approach to understanding autism, the study aims to investigate the quality of the educational experiences of pupils with ASD in mainstream schools by exploring the tensions which may arise from their inclusion, many of which reflect the unique problems that the inclusion of these pupils can present. Using a multiple case study methodology, 17 pupils with ASD ranging from 7 to 16 years, all of whom were placed in a regular class in one of 8 mainstream schools on a full time basis, were observed. Interviews were conducted with their teachers, teaching assistants and special educational needs coordinators. Two measures: the levels of emotional understanding questions (LEUQ), and the school conflict measure (SCM) /vere administered to assess the participants' ToM ability and their ability to recognize academic emotions. Additionally, the participants' school records were examined.

This study used sequential mixed methods of analysis to investigate whether a Social StoriesTM intervention was effective in improving the lining up behaviour of children \vith ASDs at the end of playground periods in their mainstream primary school, and to explain why the Social StoriesT we:e, or were not, effective in this particular setting. Unique Social StoriesT were written for 6 participants (age range 7-11) and administered daily by classroom assistants, trained by the researcher. Covert video observation data ~vas collected on three occasions during baseline, intervention and maintenance phases. An interval recording structure was applied to the video material through Transana software. Quantitative data generated in this way revealed no significant changes in participant behaviour across phases. Although rates of treatment integrity were variable, these were not found to b~ correlated with the effects of the Social StoriesT. A Grounded Theory analysis was completed with the aid of MaxQDA software after a purposive sample of video material was transcribed. An overall storyline 'adult attitudes and behaviour shape children's behaviour' emerged, which conceptualised the lining up routine in terms of an interaction between children and adults at the point of transition from child to adult directed activities. The results suggest that the characteristics of social contexts, in which Social StoriesTl\! are applied, have a direct bearing on the effectiveness of the intervention. Specifically, it appears that the effectiveness of Social StoriesT is reduced in larger unstructured social settings where behavioural regulations are less explicit. Implications for practitioners are discussed.