Teaching students with autism in natural environments: What educators need from researchers

A representative sample of the literature in the field of autism was reviewed to ascertain the po-tential impact of the available information on the development of educational programs to teach students with autism to function in a wide variety of heterogeneous community environments. Limitations in the research literature were identi-fied with regard to the artificial nature of set-tings, tasks, materials, teaching formats, and curriculum content. Suggestions are made as to ways in which research efforts can be directed to-wards enabling educators to better assist these students to function more independently and ulti-mately to live, work, and recreate in a variety of noninstitutional environments. Information about autism has increased dramatically over the past 15 years due to the combined efforts of parents, teachers, clinicians, and those engaged in basic and applied research. Despite considerable advances, the outlook for many of these students remains poor (Hageman, 1980; Sullivan, 1977). Some argue that this poor outcome is the result of the severity of the disorder of autism and that institu-tional placement is required (Loberg, 1979). A more parsimonious explanation appears to be that the poor prognosis is a function of a combination of factors including the nature of public policy regarding residential care (Wolfensberger, 1972) and the nature of the educational experience provided to students wit