Relevant Factors in the Schooling of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Early Childhood Education.

Background: Educational professionals face significant challenges in determining the most appropriate educational placement for each child with ASD, which is a major concern for their parents. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors in the development of students with ASD (language development, cognitive development, and socio-emotional development) that are most relevant in determining the modalities of schooling in early childhood education.

Methods: A total of 381 Psychopedagogical Evaluation Reports from students with ASD aged 3 to 5 years were reviewed. The importance of each variable was identified using artificial neural network analysis. Classification trees were used to determine their distribution in the two schooling modalities.

Results: A total of 42.9% of boys aged 3-5 years with ASD and 54.12% of girls aged 3-5 years with ASD were enrolled in specific modalities.

Conclusions: Cognitive development and comprehensive language were the two variables that best explained whether children with ASD were educated in specific or ordinary modalities. The presence of a significantly impaired level of cognitive development was the best predictor of schooling in specific modalities, and for the rest of the cognitive levels, the greater the difficulties in comprehensive language, the greater the likelihood of schooling in specific modalities.