Fostering parents-professional collaboration for facilitating the school inclusion of students with ASD: design of the "ToGather" web-based prototype.

In recent years, many psycho-educational technologies were studied to address the school-related difficulties encountered by students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most of them remain individual-centered and do not consider the social environment. To fill this gap, this study reports on the user-centered design of a web-based support tool, which aims to support communication and coordination between parents, school staff and health professionals of middle and high school students with ASD, in the context of elaborating, implementing, and following an Individualized Education Plan. The study followed a two-step design process: (1) a need analysis for identifying information domains deemed important by the stakeholders; (2) through a participative iterative design process, a panel of professionals and parents provided ideas and feedbacks on the design, which was integrated in subsequent prototype versions of the "ToGather" app. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11423-021-10073-w.

Cognitive Mediators of School-Related Socio-Adaptive Behaviors in ASD and Intellectual Disability Pre- and Adolescents: A Pilot-Study in French Special Education Classrooms.

The school inclusion of students with autism is still a challenge. To address the cognitive underpinnings of school-related adaptive behaviors, 27 students with autism and 18 students with intellectual and/or severe learning disability, aged from 11 to 17, were recruited. They underwent socio-emotional processing and executive functioning assessments, as well as school-related adaptive behavior and quality of life measurements. Both groups performed equally on socio-emotional and executive assessments, and they reported the same low quality of life. However, students with autism exhibited more limitations than the students with intellectual disabilities on complex school adaptive behaviors (socialization and autonomy) and problem behaviors, but both groups performed equally on more basic adaptive behaviors (school routines, communication). Multiple regression analyses highlighted between-group differences in terms of adaptive functioning profiles, which were linked with different cognitive predictors according to students' medical conditions. The greater school-related limitations of students with autism were mostly explained by socio-emotional performance, while IQ (intellectual quotient) mostly explained the comparable between-group limitations. The low quality of life of both groups was slightly explained by executive performance. The role of both socio-emotional and executive functioning in students' adaptive behaviors and quality of life suggests remediation targets for promoting the school inclusion of students with autism.