BJSW Advance Access originally published online on August 22, 2006
British Journal of Social Work 2007 37(5):925-936; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcl089
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Social Workers’ Understanding of Autistic Spectrum Disorders: An Exploratory Investigation
David Preece works as Team Manager, Services for Children with Autism, for Northamptonshire Children and Families. He has worked with children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) for over 15 years. He has a MEd in Special Education (autism) and is currently undertaking his PhD at the University of Birmingham.
After a Psychology degree, Rita Jordan established a pre-school group and toy library for those then excluded from education in the UK. Following a research based MSc in Child Development, she worked as a research officer on the needs of those with multiple and profound learning difficulties and staff and parent training. She then taught in mainstream and special schools, including one for ASD (for nine years) during which time she took an MA in Applied Linguistics. She has taught in HE on special needs, language development, clinical linguistics, the psychology of education, and cognitive science (all at the University of Hertfordshire). Her doctorate was on pronouns in autism. Since 1993, she has developed and run a range of programmes in autism studies at The University of Birmingham, including a web-based one. She has written about and researched many aspects of autism and has been involved in training events, consultations and conferences all over the world. She has served on national and international task forces and working parties to review evidence and offer advice in relation to ASD.
Correspondence to Professor Rita Jordan, School of Education, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK. E-mail: r.r.jordan{at}bham.ac.uk
How social workers perceive autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) will inevitably impact upon how they assess the needs of children with ASD and their families, and upon the types of service or interventions they seek to provide to meet those needs. However, little is known of social workers’ understanding of the condition. Using a research instrument devised by Mavropoulou and Padeliadu (2000), a study was carried out of all social workers working with disabled children in an English local authority. The results showed that though many workers had a good understanding of some aspects of the condition, there was also confusion about some key facts concerning ASD, the characteristics of ASD and scientific terminology, an inaccurate understanding of intervention approaches, and a more positive attitude towards the ability of generic services to meet need than was supported by the literature. Implications are discussed in terms of the provision of services to families of children with ASD in the UK, and the limitations of this study are recognized.
Keywords: autism, autistic spectrum disorders, social workers, attitudes