UCLA

Successful transitions to kindergarten improve children’s short- and long-term outcomes. Autistic children are more likely than their typically developing peers to face challenges during these transitions. There are no standard transition planning practices for autistic students; therefore, decisions about classroom placement and supports rely primarily on caregiver and teacher perceptions. No published studies examine the predictive validity of caregiver and teacher perspectives or how to incorporate them into decision-making. We examined whether caregivers and preschool teachers could predict children’s adjustment to kindergarten, and whether caregiver-teacher communication and teachers’ autism experience moderated prediction accuracy. The sample included 93 caregiver-child dyads, 68 preschool teachers, and 54 kindergarten teachers. All children had either a medical diagnosis or educational classification of autism. Caregivers and preschool teachers completed a survey, predicting the success of their student/child in kindergarten. Preschool teachers’ prediction of children’s successful adjustment was positively associated with children’s positive affect, like contentedness or excitement, in kindergarten. Caregivers’ prediction of children’s successful adjustment was negatively associated with children’s interfering behavior. Neither caregiver-teacher communication nor teacher autism experience moderated the association between predictions and child outcomes. Findings suggest that teachers and caregivers offer complementary insights that should be included in transition planning to better support autistic children’s transitions to kindergarten.