Transitioning Children with Autism to Australian Schools: Social Validation of Important Teacher Practices

The transition of young children with autism from early intervention to school needs to be carefully managed in order to maintain intervention gains, protect against the risk of child-and-family anxiety, and enable a successful start to formal education. While many North American studies have mapped high-intensity practices for transitioning children with disabilities to school, only a few have recently examined autism-specific practices. The present study drew on this literature to identify and socially validate transition-to-school practices for Australian children with autism and their families. Queensland intervention and advisory teachers (N = 91) used an on-line survey to rate 36 transition practices. Results indicate that all practices were perceived to be highly important in the Australian context. Future transition-to-school research can draw upon this socially validated practice listing.