Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the Western Cape Province of South Africa

Background The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in South Africa is unknown and there is little information on the educational service needs of children with ASD in the country. There are no standardized procedures for identification, diagnosis and management of children with autism. The...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pillay, Sarosha
Other Authors: de Vries, Petrus
Format: Thesis
Language:Eng
Published: Division of Occupational Therapy 2024
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613146093453312
access_status_str Open Access
author Pillay, Sarosha
author2 de Vries, Petrus
author_browse Pillay, Sarosha
de Vries, Petrus
author_facet de Vries, Petrus
Pillay, Sarosha
author_sort Pillay, Sarosha
collection Thesis
description Background The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in South Africa is unknown and there is little information on the educational service needs of children with ASD in the country. There are no standardized procedures for identification, diagnosis and management of children with autism. The Western Cape is one of the better resourced provinces in the country in terms of ASD services, yet educational opportunities for these children are limited. The Western Cape was therefore used as a case study to understand the landscape of education systems for children with ASD in South Africa. Objectives The objectives of the study were a) to determine the number and profile of children with ASD both in and out of schools in the Western Cape, b) to examine stakeholder views, perspectives and proposed solutions to meet the educational needs of children with ASD and their families, and c) to generate suggestions to strengthen ASD systems and services. Methods An exploratory mixed-methods approach was used across two phases. In the first phase, quantitative provincial educational data were used to describe the profile of children with ASD in the formal public sector education system as well as those waiting for educational services. The second phase used qualitative focus groups and semistructured individual interviews to examine the perspectives and recommendations of caregivers, service providers and government stakeholders about ASD services. Results A systematic database search for children with ASD in the whole provincial educational system, combined with the provincial ‘waiting list' of those waiting for school placement found very low rates of ASD (
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/40146
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language Eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:30.019Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher Division of Occupational Therapy
publisherStr Division of Occupational Therapy
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/40146 Towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the Western Cape Province of South Africa Pillay, Sarosha de Vries, Petrus Duncan Eve Health Science Background The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in South Africa is unknown and there is little information on the educational service needs of children with ASD in the country. There are no standardized procedures for identification, diagnosis and management of children with autism. The Western Cape is one of the better resourced provinces in the country in terms of ASD services, yet educational opportunities for these children are limited. The Western Cape was therefore used as a case study to understand the landscape of education systems for children with ASD in South Africa. Objectives The objectives of the study were a) to determine the number and profile of children with ASD both in and out of schools in the Western Cape, b) to examine stakeholder views, perspectives and proposed solutions to meet the educational needs of children with ASD and their families, and c) to generate suggestions to strengthen ASD systems and services. Methods An exploratory mixed-methods approach was used across two phases. In the first phase, quantitative provincial educational data were used to describe the profile of children with ASD in the formal public sector education system as well as those waiting for educational services. The second phase used qualitative focus groups and semistructured individual interviews to examine the perspectives and recommendations of caregivers, service providers and government stakeholders about ASD services. Results A systematic database search for children with ASD in the whole provincial educational system, combined with the provincial ‘waiting list' of those waiting for school placement found very low rates of ASD ( 2024-07-02T10:03:05Z 2024-07-02T10:03:05Z 2023 2024-05-31T13:18:32Z Thesis / Dissertation Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40146 Eng application/pdf Division of Occupational Therapy Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle Health Science
Pillay, Sarosha
Towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the Western Cape Province of South Africa
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the Western Cape Province of South Africa
title_full Towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the Western Cape Province of South Africa
title_fullStr Towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the Western Cape Province of South Africa
title_full_unstemmed Towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the Western Cape Province of South Africa
title_short Towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the Western Cape Province of South Africa
title_sort towards integrated service delivery for children with autism spectrum disorder in the western cape province of south africa
topic Health Science
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/40146
work_keys_str_mv AT pillaysarosha towardsintegratedservicedeliveryforchildrenwithautismspectrumdisorderinthewesterncapeprovinceofsouthafrica