Autism Spectrum Disorders: Typology, prevalence and schooling in the province of Almeria (Spain)

Abstract

The evolution of the prevalence in the autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is of great importance for decision-making about the prevision of the resources. Similarly, decisions related to these children's schooling always causes uncertainty and concern in the family and the professionals who have to orient them about the type of schooling and resources. The goals of this investigation are to identify the prevalence of the autism spectrum disorder in the school population of the province of Almeria (Spain), as well as to appraise the relation of dependence or independence between the variable type of schooling and the variable disability typology underlying the special educational needs of these students. For this descriptive study, we used the entire school population of Almeria from the academic years 2007/2008 to 2013/2014. The reliability of the data used is supported by the contrast between the existing information in the management of the Andaluza educational administration (Seneca) and the evolution of the population of Almeria by age groups.