Abstract

There is a challenge in rural areas with regard to identifying and providing support services for children and youth with ASD. Teachers in rural communities are often confronted by various challenges related to learners with ASD, which include impairments of social interaction, communication and thought processes. Owing to lack of knowledge and skills on how to accommodate such learners, teachers ultimately confuse or misconstrue the learning support needs of learners with ASD to be having challenging behaviours, being stubborn, unmotivated, emotionally impaired, undisciplined, severely or intellectually impaired. This may bring about the delays in progressive and relevant intervention strategies that could be established to combat the developmental barriers that young children and youth with ASD may experience. Learners in rural areas who live with ASD, like their counterparts in urban areas, need consistent individual support, structured and adapted curricula to prevent and address learning breakdown.

Since the developmental skills and abilities of learners with ASD are atypical, highly indivualised and do not always develop spontaneously, this chapter will focus on learners with ASD in rural context. I will specifically delve into the causal factors (mainly intrinsic to the learner), how rural environments affect and influence the developmental milestones of learners with ASD, and the intervention strategies, which could provide opportunities for social interaction between learners with ASD and their neuro-typical peers in inclusive settings.