From:
Sent: Wednesday, 12 July 2023 4:59 PM
To: Committee, Education & Health Standing laehsc@parliament.wa.gov.au
Subject: RE: Submission to parliamentary inquiry - Autism
- Prevalence The factors affecting diagnosis in WA (and everywhere else in Australia) include:
- Much earlier diagnosis
- Vastly increased public awareness of the condition
- Autism attracts targeted funding Autism is not more prevalent in certain demographics. Diagnostic availability, awareness and willingness to seek a diagnosis (and early intervention- both availability and takeup) vary across different demographics.
More students diagnosed with Autism equates to greater demand for services. Teachers in WA generally speaking do not provide appropriate teaching and adjustments for students with imputed Autism, based on their individual needs.
- Current support available WA public schools and principals are not obliged by the Director General or the Minister for Education to have effective supports, structures and processes in place to support mainstream teachers of students with disability, including Autism; and to resource these structures and processes equitably. It is not the case that effective teaching and supports for students with Autism are not understood or not available. What’s missing in so many pubic schools is support for a rigorous professional learning community, properly resourced and led by highly skilled specialist teachers whose focus is on supporting their classroom colleagues to assist students with Autism (and other disability) to achieve the outcomes. Within this model, which a minority of public schools currently attempt to implement, when services external to the school are engaged, the external providers can be much more confident that their input will be valued by the school and the classroom teacher will have ongoing support provided by the school’s internal teacher support system, to implement and embed the recommendations of the external provider.