Aznan Che Ahmad

Pre-service teachers’ attitude towards inclusive education for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Malaysia

ABSTRACT In this study, the pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards the educational inclusion for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were investigated to identify their attitudinal patterns and predictors. An attitudinal survey was conducted with 264 pre-service teachers in a teacher training programme in Malaysia. The study involved 151 special education pre-service teachers and 181 pre-service teachers in Special Education, Sciences, and in English teacher training programmes, in order to identify the effects of teaching specialisations and societal attitude on their inclusive education attitudinal measures. The findings revealed that the special education pre-service teachers were less in favour of the total inclusion of students with ASD in the mainstream, when compared with the non-special education pre-service teachers. The findings also revealed the combined effects of societal attitude and a categorical teacher training model in shaping the pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education for the students with ASD in Malaysia. Such combined effects offered a perspective to explain the delay in the implementation of inclusive education, and also the prospect of its future development in the Southeast Asian region.

Preparing special education pre-service teachers to address the speech, language and communication needs of students with ASD: a needs assessment

ABSTRACT Many developing countries still face a scarcity of resources and expertise to provide quality education to school-age students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Despite efforts to promote inclusive education for these students, progress is slow due to the lack of multidisciplinary supporting services such as speech and language therapy. In this study, focused-group interviews were conducted with a sample of seven final-year pre-service special education teachers in Malaysia. The pre-service teachers reported minimal to moderate knowledge about ASD and the lack of knowledge about the specific strategies to teach language and communication skills to students with ASD. Based on the findings, the ways to better prepare pre-service teachers to address the speech, language and communication needs of students with ASD in Malaysia are discussed.

Facilitative Communication Strategies of Hearing Mothers with Their Children Who are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing

Abstract This study investigated how the type and duration of early intervention (EI) experience impacts hearing parents’ views of the importance of different types of facilitative communication strategies when interacting with their children who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). Sixteen mothers were involved in the study. Respondents were allocated to two groups: one group consisted of eight mothers of D/HH children who had been diagnosed within the last 18 months (Group N – new) and a second group which consisted of eight experienced mothers of D/HH children who had been diagnosed for longer than 24 months (Group E – experienced). Questionnaires were used to gather data relating to the value that the mothers placed on individual communication strategies. To complement these data, 3-minute mother–child play interactions were videotaped and analysed to investigate how individual mothers utilized the strategies with their children. Analysis revealed only minor differences related to time spent in EI and type of programme both in relation to parents’ views of the value of certain strategies and their interactions with their child. The implications of the findings are discussed.