Celebrity Kim Raver reads about autism to children. Many autism advocates are happy with the new core training for teachers that includes handling students with autism.
(Photo : Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)
Teachers will now be trained how to support their students diagnosed with autism. This is the fruit of the efforts made by campaigning for months from parents, charities and MPs.
According to the reports from Telegraph UK, the campaign emerged after the rising number of children with autism in schools, with more than 1 in 100 children on the autism spectrum and over 70 percent of them going to mainstream schools. Eventually, with this number, every teacher will have children with autism in their classes.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan personally helped campaign for these teachers to have a proper training on handling and supporting students with autism or those with special needs. As told by a government source to the Daily Telegraph, “Mrs. Morgan approached the chair of the initial teach training review, Stephen Munday, and personally raised the issue of including training on special educational seeds (SEN), especially autism, as key part of training.”
Mrs. Morgan is passionate about the issue and she recommended that this training should be part of the core content that the teachers should follow.
Autism for the most part presents learning difficulties that could be serious and these children’s parents worry that their child is not understood nor supported properly by teachers who does not have training regarding how to handle the condition in their students.
The over 7,000 people who signed the joint letter for this request of training for the teachers are very happy that the government has finally listened to their plea. These MPs and school staff are to thank for as they believe that every child with autism will need a teacher who understands them.
This handling training though is not made mandatory. Some of the teachers will not have any special education needs training at all.
A teacher need not be an expert on autism, but if they have a general knowledge of the condition, they will be able to help support and understand the child. It will surely make a difference in a child’s life.