No abstract

An Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is a multi-disciplinary, team-developed plan that is required for a child receiving special education services. IEPs are tools for setting objectives that are responsive to students with special needs. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is a hierarchical classification for human functioning and disability developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The ICF classification can be used as a structural and conceptual instrument in goal setting. In this study the educational IEP objectives of five Finnish students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are examined within the ICF framework. The focus is in the goals concerning the development of communication and social behavior because the main criteria for ASD comprise disabilities and challenges in communication and social behavior. The aim of the study was to assess the usefulness of the ICF coding system with regard to educational goals and objectives of students with ASD. The core content of the goals was extracted to linking units, which were coded into categories of the ICF classification. The results revealed that only few of possible ICF categories were used, the goals linked to communication technologies were heavily stressed, and the relation between the goals and general curriculum was vague. As a conclusion it is suggested that teachers and multi-disciplinary teams might benefit from standardizing their mutual conceptual framework with the help of the ICF when setting goals or objectives for students with disabilities.

This chapter first provides a short description of the historical background and development of special education teacher training in Finland. The relationship between special education and teaching pupils with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is covered by chronologically presenting the main events, turning points, publications, and people that have had a significant effect on the education of pupils with ASD in Finland. This is followed by a description of the organization of teacher training, in general, and the particular characteristics of teaching pupils with ASD. In the context of ASD, it is essential to examine questions concerning the link between learning as social practice and the challenges of interaction manifested in learning difficulties. The chapter ends with a description of the continuing teacher education for special education teachers in Finland.

The purpose of this article was to describe a Finnish research project concerning communicative spontaneity in pupils with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is a behavioural syndrome which is neurobiological in origin and which involves atypical developmental dysfunctions in the brain. The essential features are persistent impairment in reciprocal social communication and social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interest, and activities. However, an important part of flexible interaction is functional communication between partners, and spontaneity is a critical aspect of functional communication. Communicative spontaneity can be assessed by examining the relationship between environmental antecedents or cues (prompts) and communicative acts. In this study spontaneity is viewed along a continuum, it is, all communicative acts are considered to have some degree of spontaneity and all communication is environmentally prompted or cued. In this research a model of supportive prompts for spontaneity was applied in practice. The model in question is Carter and Hotchkis's four-level antecedent model. The study explored the supportive prompts ethnomethodologically. In the study described six video recordings (each about 30 min) from authentic classroom situations were categorised with the four-level antecedent model. These videos are unusual in Finnish context in that they involve only the teacher and her six pupils with ASD; no helpers are present in the classroom. This study indicated that the four-level antecedent model is a powerful means of analysing the dimensions of spontaneous communication, but the sensitivity of the model can be increased. The authors' suggestion is that the modification of the model may be accomplished by adding new categories (such as non-acting or prompt-seeking behaviour) or editing current categories. The modified four-level antecedent model is more applicable to help teachers develop spontaneity in the communication of pupils with ASD.

Many children may need the help of another person to attend school. It is common for children with disabilities to receive help from a teaching assistant at school. Assistants are provided in many countries as a legal right and are often publicly funded. It is also widely assumed that having teaching assistants in the class is an effective and cost-efficient way to support students with disabilities. In this study, the research task was to monitor and document the development process carried out by the teacher, with the aim of making visible the development of a more dynamic classroom interaction. The focus in this development process was the teacher’s idea of minimizing the contacts between students and assistants to increase students’ opportunities to optimize interaction and learning. This was to happen by strengthening commitment to their activities and taking responsibility. The data include video excerpts, which originate from video recordings from a special education class, and transcripts of three stimulated recall-type interviews with the teacher of this class. In this article, the experimental development process is described as presenting an unorthodox approach to teaching assistants and their position in special education.