Effectiveness of the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication-Handicapped Children (TEACCH) Intervention

Abstract

An evaluation study on the effectiveness of the implementation and use of the TEACCH approach on improving autistic students’ skills and reducing the level of stress among autistic students’ teachers, and on whether there is a difference in its effectiveness between special education and mainstream schools in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this, the opinions of autistic students’ teachers were surveyed through an electronic questionnaire answered by 20 teachers, and two semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results show that, based on the opinions of teachers of autistic students in Saudi Arabia, the TEACCH approach can be an effective intervention in improving the skills of autistic children, especially the skill of completing tasks. In addition, TEACCH helped reduce the level of stress of teachers; they recommended the use of TEACCH intervention with autistic students in special education schools, but tended to be neutral about its application in mainstream schools. Generally, the study confirms that TEACCH can be an effective approach with autistic students, but still requires further empirical research.