Impact of School Integration on Socio-Adaptive Behaviors in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): A Longitudinal Study

It has been shown that students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present behavioural, communication, and socialisation difficulties that hinder their social adaptation. Fortunately, these obstacles may be overcome by integrating into a typical environment. The present study aims to determine, on the one hand, whether the schooling of children with ASD can modify their socio-adaptive behaviours, including communication, socialisation, motor skills, and daily living skills and, on the other hand, if the children’s age, gender, ASD level of severity, and type of provided support can influence the changes that occur in these adaptive behaviours. To achieve these objectives, it was deemed appropriate to conduct a longitudinal study on a sample of 18 primary school students with ASD selected using a purposive sampling technique. The socio-adaptive behaviours of these students were assessed twice over one year using the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) II. They were evaluated first at time T1 (the beginning of school integration, at the start of the school year) and then at time T2 (the end of school integration, after one school year). The study's findings indicated that socio-adaptive behaviours' subdomains were significantly improved at time T2. However, the play, leisure, and social adaptation subdomains showed no significant changes. According to the descriptive analysis and effect size results, these changes can be influenced by the type of support, the severity level of autism spectrum disorder, and the age and gender of children, even though the statistical analysis did not show any significant differences. However, these results cannot be generalised because the student sample size considered in this study is not large enough.