New online platform to support the autistic in classrooms

inclusionED is a new online professional learning community for Australian educators, a step towards creating inclusive classrooms for all learners, including those with learning difficulties or neurodevelopmental disabilities.

The inclusionED platform assists educators to support their students, whether they are at school or learning from home.

Delivered through a collaboration between the Autism Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT), the platform provides evidence-based and research informed teaching practices, videos, printable templates and other resources. Parents can also utilise the free tools to support their children to learn from home.

Autism Queensland has been an essential participant of the Autism CRC since its inception in 2013 and contributed extensively to the research underpinning inclusionEd.

“Participation in busy mainstream classrooms can be highly challenging and at times overwhelming for many students on the autism spectrum,” said Dr Jill Ashburner, Manager, Research and Development at Autism Queensland.

“Our research focused on strategies and supports that could be seamlessly embedded into everyday classroom practice, benefiting not only students on the spectrum but also other students with additional learning needs.

“For example, we conducted research into a range of visual supports to make it easier for students to transition from one task to another, and technologies to improve their capacity to express themselves in writing.”

Autism Queensland has been providing education and therapy services and supports for people on the spectrum since 1967.