Project INCLASS

Inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorders in schools

Autism affects at least one per cent of schoolchildren in Germany, and the demands for inclusive education are increasing. There are more and more autistic children¹ in schools, while at the same time there is often a lack of knowledge and resources for the appropriate education of children on the autism spectrum. The socio-emotional wellbeing and educational success of children with autism depend to a large extent on autism-sensitive schooling.

The core product of the INCLASS project is a resource-oriented training tool for school staff working with students on the autism spectrum, developed and offered as a (free) digital training platform. The training platform is a flexible, efficient and practical way to acquire relevant and needs-based skills for teaching autistic children in inclusive classrooms. Two additional components are

• An assessment tool that captures teachers’ knowledge, beliefs and motivation and serves as a self-assessment to provide teachers with individualised feedback on their competence in autism and autism-sensitive education. It will also allow for tailored selection of training content and evaluation of training outcomes.
• INCLASS will explore the heterogeneous, contextual, variable and highly individual factors of autism-related challenges and behaviours in school and their recognition by teachers using experience sampling methods. A smartphone app will be developed that can be used by teachers and their new students to gain insight into individual barriers.

The products – the assessment tool and the digital training tool with a prototype of the app – will be made available free of charge to all schools (open educational resource).

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¹ In current discourse, there are different conceptual variants, including the terms spectrum and autistic/autistic, both of which we use in the context of the project. At the same time, we distance ourselves from any form of pathologising terminology.