UC Riverside

In U.S. classrooms, the number of both autistic students and, at the same time, paraprofessionals have been increasing. Though these concurrent increases do not appear to be related, it does imply that there are more autistic students and more paraprofessionals in U.S. classrooms than ever before. The current study sought to understand more about paraprofessionals, the students who receive paraprofessional support, and the relationship between the two of them. It was found that students who had paraprofessional support, had significantly lower cognitive abilities and less internalizing behavior problems compared to those without (though both groups showed similar levels of externalizing behavior and social skills). When comparing the relationships for the same autistic student between teacher-student vs. paraprofessional-student dyads, they were found to be similar across the domains of closeness, conflict, and overall quality, however paraprofessionals reported significantly more dependency than teachers. These findings have implications for future paraprofessional trainings. Though paraprofessionals are not supposed to independently provide instructional support to students, as per federal guidelines, the literature has indicated it is often a role that they do fill. Given the results that autistic students with paraprofessional support tend have lower cognitive abilities and are perceived to be overly dependent on paraprofessionals, paraprofessional training should focus on increasing understanding of autism and teaching skills in order promote independence among autistic students. Due to the small sample size and therefore limited analyses, these findings are viewed as exploratory. They do suggest a need for more research in this area to understand the role, and relationship of paraprofessionals in classrooms with autistic students.