onlincourse

Good Practice in Autism Education

Understand more about autism and intellectual disabilities, and develop good practice in autism education with this free online course from the University of Bath.

Duration

4 weeks

Weekly study

3 hours

100% online

How it works

Unlimited subscription

Learn more

Accreditation

More info

Support autistic children in the classroom

Do you want to improve your understanding of autism and learn good practice in autism education?

This 4-week course tackles crucial questions about autism education to ensure that children on the autism spectrum are educated to their greatest potential.

Understanding autism in education

The course will begin by exploring your understanding of autism, including the signs, symptoms, diagnosis, and potential causes. You’ll explore how special educational needs and disabilities can affect a child’s ability to learn.

Inclusivity in the classroom is extremely important, so you’ll explore how to develop an inclusive curriculum for autistic students.

You’ll also learn about the many modalities of schooling for students with autism, including general special schools, autism-specific special schools, autism units within mainstream schools, and being in a mainstream classroom.

Develop good practices for autistic children

Next, we’ll investigate more thoroughly what contributes to good practice in autism education, including building upon research-based evidence.

Sharing the best practices can be beneficial to the autism community, so we’ll explore social apps such as SOFA, co-designed by people on the autism spectrum.

You’ll learn how to promote inclusion, cognitive accessibility, wellbeing and academic skills at school, and also understand how life skills can benefit autistic children beyond the classroom.

Week 1
Introduction to Autism and Intellectual Disability
- Welcome to Good Practice in Autism Education
  Professor Mark Brosnan introduces the course and outlines some of the activities you will be undertaking over the next four weeks.
- What is autism?
  We will start the course by exploring your understanding of autism including the signs, symptoms, diagnosis and potential causes.
- Special education needs & disabilities (SEND) and intellectual disability
  Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can affect a child or young person’s ability to learn. Let us now explore some of the signs, symptoms and potential causes of learning (intellectual) difficulties.
- Autism, intellectual disability and beyond.
  We'll now look at how autism and intellectual disability in combination can affect individuals. In addition we look at broader issues such as co-occurring conditions, a broader spectrum of autistic-like traits and neurodiversity.
Week 2
Inclusive Education
- Inclusion
  Find out more about inclusion and inclusive practices
- Schools, systems and structures for education provision
  Considering the alternatives available for different types of schooling
- Inclusive culture, policies and practice
  In this section, we'll explore the Index for Inclusion and discuss the importance of inclusion in educational settings.
Week 3
Good Practice in Autism Education
- What is good practice in autism education?
  In this section we investigate more thoroughly what contributes to good practice in autism education
- Evidence-based practice (EBP)
  Good practice is often built upon good evidence. This section introduces evidence-based practice.
- Evaluating research evidence
  Research-based evidence can be difficult to interpret, here we explore a mechanism for evaluating the quality of research underpinning good practice
Week 4
Good practice examples
- Get involved! Good practice with digital support for autism.
  How do you find the right piece of technology to support your child? Here we examine social stories and the SOFA-app which is co-designed with the autism community - will it work for you?
- Good practice in autism education (AMUSE)
  The Autism Education Trust report highlights the importance of enabling pupils to ‘reach their potential’ and this is as an over-arching goal for schools. Use Link: https://en.autismunits.eu/web/
- Good practice beyond education (AMUSE too)
  Good practice also extends beyond the school context to the home. Use link: https://en.autismunits.eu/web/