The problem of the disabled person has suffered, over the years, numerous changes. We are witnessing, these days, an attempt to provide them with the same kind of opportunities that are available for said "normal" individuals.

In compliance with the assumptions outlined by the Salamanca Statement, including the idea that children and young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) should benefit from access to regular school. Therefore, schools must adopt an increasingly inclusive and able guidance to eradicate discriminatory attitudes that may still exist within it.

McConkey and McCormack (1983, cited by Steele, 2003) demonstrated that contact between pupils with SEN and the remaining educational community is crucial for enabling the development of more inclusive attitudes of these children and young people in society.

In Portugal, January 2008 was the date when the Decree-Law No. 3/2008, the most recent legislation regarding special education, was published, where are highlighted the reference to various specific forms of education. These forms include structured teaching units for the education of students with autism spectrum disorders that are part of a teaching model, and establish as well the baselines for educational intervention with children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The above mentioned baselines are organized according to the physical environment through routines and systems of work, optimising this environment the most, in order to enable its assimilation by the child (Mello, 2005).

The first clinical considerations of autism were only published in 1943 by Leo Kanner, an American psychiatrist, in an article on autistic disturbances of affective contact.

In 1986, Lorna Wing introduces the concept of "autism spectrum" to refer to a group of manifestations of the same disorder (Jordan, 2000), presenting a triad of specific features: In social development, in language development, and in cognitive development.

If it is true that it is clearly feasible, these days, as referred by Onofre and Carvalho (2007), that teaching students with ASD in inclusive settings remains a  task that continues to be a real challenge for all educators who daily contact with such children. Among these educators are undoubtedly included peers in regular education, as well.

Studies have already been conducted in order to identify the benefits that, both the regular students and students with ASD obtain from inclusive experiences, whilst the majority concluded that there are significant gains of contact with the development of social skills and communication, also leading to the reduction of negative behaviours.

Finally, Harrower and Dunlap (2001) summarize all the information referring to the autistic children and bringing out also how relevant it is to include these children because their education and socialization is actually important.

Then, we formulated the following question: "Are there differences in attitudes that regular students have in regard to educational and social inclusion of peers with ASD, depending on the contact they have with them, the gender, the educational status, and the economic welfare benefits? "

In accordance with the raised issue it was established a main objective: to contribute to a better knowledge regarding the attitudes of students in the 1st and 2nd/3rd grades of basic education in what concerns the inclusion of people with ASD peers.

Relating to specific objectives, we attempted to verify the existence of probable differences in the attitude of the students of the 1st and 2nd/3rd grades of basic education, dealing with the inclusion of peers with autism. Additionally, we checked the existence, or not, in their schools of structured units for the education of students with autism spectrum disorders in Seixal, depending on the level of education, the gender and the existent or non-existent welfare benefit.

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