In this weeks episode of The Playful Psychologist, I explore autism and some of the confusions surrounding diagnostic 'labels' and misconceptions around how individuals on the autism spectrum may present.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is a lifelong, developmental condition that affects the way an individual relates to their environment, interacts with others, communicates, and copes with sensory input. The main areas of difficulty include social communication and interactions, as well as restricted/repetitive behaviours and interests. The word ‘spectrum’ tends to imply that there is a range of difficulties that people living with autism might experience. That is, different individuals have different ‘levels’ of autism.
This episode explores:
At the end of this episode, I mentioned a course that I recently created called The Autism Masterclass. This course was born out of a desire to fill a hole in our current curriculums. So many therapists and teachers have told me that their tertiary studies lacked education on autism and that they didn’t know where to turn to for more information.
This five-part course has been designed to inform parents, educators, therapists, carers, and support workers about autism. This course differs from most because it is taking a multi-faceted approach to autism. It is not only looking at one specific presentation of autism and is absolutely not only looking at autism in children. Through this five-part series, you will build your knowledge base around autism as a whole. You will learn how autism impacts on the individual, the family, their education, their therapies, and the course of their life through to adulthood. Each workshop in this course comes with its very own workbook. In the workbook you will find a summary of everything that is discussed, activities, reflection tasks, links to free resources, links to further reading, and links to free videos for you to watch to further enhance your understanding of autism.
To watch a free introductory video and download a free course booklet including all learning objectives, click on the following link:
https://theplayfulpsychologist.thinkific.com/
