Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Symptoms from the Perspective of Special Education Trainers in Kurdistan Region

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that effects behavior, language, and social development in children, the symptoms of autism can be diagnosed after the age of 2 or 3 years. The aim of this research was to investigate the behavioral, linguistic and social symptoms of children with autism from the perspective of teachers in Kurdistan region - Iraq in terms of gender, age, socioeconomic status. The researcher used the questionnaire (ASA-32) based on Alaky (2011) and DSM-5, to determine the relationships among the behavioral, linguistic, and social sub dimensions of autism spectrum disorder The study sample involved about 30 cases from several autism institutions and centers in trainer’s perspective in Kurdistan region. In total, 27 forms were received and investigated. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 26 to discover the findings of this research. The results illustrated that, there to be positive and statistically significant relationship between the behavioural and social dimensions of autism spectrum disorder. And also, there were significant differences among the three sub-dimensions of symptoms of autism according to age, gender, socioeconomic status, for instance; behavioral, linguistic and social symptoms were more common among males than in females. Children from middle-class and those families whose parents were employees have more symptoms of ASD than others. Consequently, this study was limited to involving only teacher’s perspective to investigate the symptoms of autism, therefore the outcomes cannot be generalized to other perspectives. The researchers made some recommendations for further research, the most significant point was to involve parents and different assessments and tests. And also, it is highly suggesting to the other researchers expand to the other parts and ethnic groups of Iraq to provide a whole picture of Iraqi society, therefore the findings may differ and be more significant.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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