Autism Training

Welcome to the Autism (ASD) training program.  This training module is aimed at disability support staff working in Residential Care with adolescents to provide an autism informed approach to their care and need of their clients who may have Autism, Autism and Intellectual/Learning disability, or co-morbidities with mental health. 

All participants can expect to develop the core knowledge to work successfully with young adults with autism, and in many cases, other complex needs, such as high levels of anxiety, difficulties with communication, challenging behaviour, trauma, social isolation, and poor  family support.  Services with a level of expertise in these areas have a much higher success rate in working with individuals with autism and supporting their families.  The need for autism training has been identified as crucial to improving the quality of care for people with autism and necessary in reducing the high rate of breakdown of services with providers.

Course Content:

  • Key issues facing adolescents with ASD in care with a focus on support needs
    • Understanding Autism as a spectrum
    • Characteristics of Autism _ gender differences and presenting problems in adolescence
    • Signs, Symptoms and Impact in adolescence
    • Neural bases of Autism (as it relates to adolescents)
      • Neural morphology
    • Intellectual disability (ID and Autism)
    • Comorbid conditions commonly seen in adolescents with Autism (e.g., anxiety, depression, psychosis, & suicide risk, trauma and attachment)
    • Adolescents with Autism and sexuality
      • Sexuality in Boys
      • Sexuality in Girls
    • Critical issues in the residential care of young adults with autism
    • Common health/social problems
      • Physical health
      • Mental health
      • Medications
    • Group activities examining strategies for support staff to assist their clients
      • High functioning ASD
      • Use of sensory strategies,
      • Use of social stories
      •  Behaviour management tools
      • Building Safe Attachment Based Models of Coping
      • Speech and communication strategies
    • Building reflective practice
      • Strategies for support staff that improve communication, social interaction, community participation.
      • Building a person centred plan

Training is normally run as 2 day intensive but can be run as a standard 1 day training package to suit.