“I Just Feel Like the Teacher Understood Me, and She Knew What I Needed”: School Experiences of Autistic Students from Diverse Backgrounds

Our findings reinforce how classroom design and education practices must consider the needs of all students for Autistic students to thrive. From a practice perspective, promoting student autonomy around aspects of their educational environment-such as the ability to use headphones in class or provision of spaces in which to retreat to prevent or manage sensory/social overwhelm-could be "quick wins" for schools wanting to foster safer, more secure settings for Autistic learners. Broadly, educators should aim to embed as much certainty as possible into Autistic students' educational environments to lay a solid foundation for learning. This foundation is likely to be most effective when educators are partners in discovery with each individual Autistic student, seeking to understand their unique strengths, needs, personalities and identities, and build trusting student-teacher relationships. While our research examined the perspectives of a diverse range of Autistic students, future research should attempt to elicit the educational experiences of both younger Autistic children (e.g., preschoolers) and non- or semi-speaking children, exploring methods suited to this purpose.