Learning Support Assistants' Experiences of Managing Challenging Behaviour in Pupils with Autism and Other Complex Needs: A Qualitative Evidence Synthesis

Abstract

Learning support assistants (LSAs) and teaching assistants carry much of the daily work with pupils whose behaviour is challenging, yet their own accounts of this work have rarely been brought together. This qualitative evidence synthesis examined how LSAs experience and manage challenging behaviour when supporting pupils with autism and other complex needs, including social, emotional and mental health needs. Searches of PsycINFO, ERIC, CINAHL, Web of Science and Scopus were structured with the Population, Concept and Context framework. Four qualitative theses set in mainstream schools were purposively sampled for the depth of their first-person data and appraised with the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme qualitative checklist; all four met the checklist criteria. Their findings, author interpretations and participant quotations were synthesised using Thomas and Harden's three-stage thematic synthesis, with emotional labour, self-efficacy and a functional view of behaviour as sensitising lenses. Three analytical themes were developed: the personal cost of relational practice; experiential knowledge as the core competence; and systemic context and barriers to practice. Taken together, the themes suggest that LSAs manage behaviour mainly through their relationship with a particular child, that their confidence rests on knowing that child rather than on transferable, function-based knowledge, and that little time for supervision and reflection keeps this pattern in place. Because the synthesis rests on four studies and a single reviewer, the findings are tentative. They point to reflective supervision, function-based training and protected planning time as areas schools may wish to develop.