Autism education requires strong evidence focus, says Professor

Jeff Sigafoos

One of the country’s leading education specialists in the treatment of autism says many current treatments are unproven, and may actually be harming children.

Professor Jeff Sigafoos, lecturer at Victoria University’s Faculty of Education, says without a more evidence-based approach to education, autistic children are potentially at risk.

“Autism is an area where there happens to be a lot of misuse of evidence, controversy about what works for children and what doesn’t, and a lot of unproven, ineffective and potentially harmful things being done in the name of educating children.”

In his inaugural lecture on 23rd November, 2010, Professor Sigafoos covered the life and work of several major figures that influenced the understanding of autism, and the education and treatment of children with autism. He also put forward a case for transforming education into a more evidence-based profession.

Autism affects one in every 150 children. Most of them have difficulty communicating and around 50 per cent fail to develop speech at all.

Professor Sigafoos says his own research shows that many parents are using unproven and potentially harmful treatments. In a study of the kind of treatments being used by 552 parents for children with autism, he found 108 different treatments being used.

“Only five or six of those treatments were evidence-based, which means there are about 100 unproven treatments being used by parents, and I suspect this may apply to schools as well.

Some of those could be quite harmful or detrimental.”

Prof. Sigafoos says he is applying the evidence-based approach to his current Marsden funded research on identifying the best communication tools for children with autism, with the aim of reducing some of the behavioural problems associated with the disorder.

Prof. Pat Walsh, Victoria Vice Chancellor, says, “Professor Sigafoos’ current Marsden research is groundbreaking and aimed at bringing fresh evidence to a topic that is hotly debated internationally. His research is making a real difference to the lives of people affected by autism.”