CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WHO HAVE AUTISM

ASSIGNMENT LISTING

TEXTBOOK (highly recommended though optional)

Boucher, Jill. The Autism Spectrum: Characteristics, Causes, and Practical Issues.
2nd ed. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE, 2017.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amaral, David G., Geraldine Dawson, and Daniel H. Geschwind, eds. Autism
Spectrum Disorders. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Grandin, Temple, and Richard Panek. The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the
Spectrum. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007.

Schreibman, Laura Ellen. The Science and Fiction of Autism. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.

Tantam, Digby. Autism Spectrum Disorders Through the Life Span. London:
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2012.

Volkmar, Fred R., Brian Reichow, and James C. McPartland, eds. Adolescents and
Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders. New York: Springer, 2014.

UNITS
NOTE: In this course, though you will learn a common set of content about the
characteristics of students and adults with autism, you will be permitted to
demonstrate your understanding of this content in a manner that suits your needs,
interests, instructional/work setting, and the needs of your students and colleagues.
Hence, for each unit, you will be able to present the information from that unit in an
"information sheet/brochure" that you may use at a later time to present to
colleagues so that they may be better informed about the needs of their students on
the autism spectrum. Alternatively, you may compose an "equivalent work product"
in some other format of your choosing so long as it is of an equivalent length and you
present an equivalent amount of information through that alternative work product.

N.B. PLAGIARISM REMINDER - Please be sure not plagiarize any portion of

your submissions. Make sure to fully cite any source of outside information
that you use in any portion of your assignment submissions. Make sure to put
any portion of text copied directly from another source in quotation marks and
include an in-text citation next to it. If you find that you are not able to
paraphrase a quote properly, just copy the original text but then put it in
quotation marks and cite it properly. Do not copy your assignments or any
portion of them from any other course participant except from those in your
collaborative work group who you are working closely with to complete that
specific assignment.

Completed1. The Autism Spectrum - An Introduction (Chapters 1-2)

Completed2. Autism Spectrum Disorders (Chapters 2-4)

-Compose a 2-4 page information sheet or brochure suitable for presentation to your
colleagues at a professional development event or an equivalent work product (e.g.
Power Point presentation) that:

Completed(a) summarises the DSM-5 criteria for the diagnosis of autism and;
Completed(b) outlines common characteristics of students with autism as well
as the common subtypes of autism spectrum disorder defined under the
DSM-4 (e.g. Asperger's syndrome) and common characteristics of students
with each of these subtypes.

Completed3. Epidemiology (Chapter 5)

-In a 1-2 page information sheet or brochure suitable for presentation to your
colleagues at a professional development event or an equivalent work product (e.g.
Power Point presentation), present information on the epidemiological characteristics
of autism, including the frequency of occurrence including incidence and prevalence
data and the distribution of cases across gender, race, and social class.

Not Started4. Autism and ASD Throughout the Lifespan (Chapter 5)

-In a 1-2 page information sheet or brochure suitable for presentation to your
colleagues at a professional development event or an equivalent work product (e.g.
Power Point presentation), present information on the development of autism
throughout the lifespan, including the age of onset (i.e. idiopathic vs. quasi-autism
and idiopathic vs. regressive) and research findings on the developmental trajectory
of people on the autism spectrum.

Not Started5. Causes of Autism - Root Causes (Chapters 6-7)

-In a 1 page information sheet or brochure suitable for presentation to your
colleagues at a professional development event or an equivalent work product (e.g.
Power Point presentation), outline the genetic and environmental risk factors for
autism and the research underlines our current understanding of these risk factors.

Not Started6. Causes of Autism - Brain Bases (Chapter 8)

-In a 1-2 page information sheet or brochure suitable for presentation to your
colleagues at a professional development event or an equivalent work product (e.g.
Power Point presentation), outline the differences in the brain structure, chemistry,
function, and development of neurotypical individuals and individuals with autism.

Not Started7. Proximal Causes - Diagnostic Behaviors (Chapter 9)

Not Started8. Proximal Causes - Additional Shared Characteristics and Major

Specifiers (Chapter 10)
-In a 3-5 page information sheet or brochure suitable for presentation to your
colleagues at a professional development event or an equivalent work product (e.g.
Power Point presentation), outline
Not Started (a) the major theories and evidence relating to the immediate
causes of the socio-emotional-communicative impairments and restricted and
repetitive behaviours that constitute diagnostic criteria for ASD;
Not Started (b) the major theories and evidence related to "shared
characteristics" commonly observed in individuals with varying
forms/presentations of autism spectrum disorder, and;
Not Started (c) the proximal causes of learning disability and language
impairment in individuals with autism.

Not Started9. Comorbidity/Cooccurring Disorders and Conditions (Chapter 11)

-In a 1-3 page information sheet or brochure suitable for presentation to your
colleagues at a professional development event or an equivalent work product,
outline the proximal causes of specifiers of autism, including medical,
neurodevelopment, and/or mental conditions such as hypotonia, dyspraxia, Fragile X
syndrome, catatonia, ADHD, anxiety, and depression.

Not Started10. Giftedness and the Autism Spectrum: Common Considerations

(N.B. Please use outside sources for this activity.)
-In a 1 page information sheet or brochure suitable for presentation to your
colleagues at a professional development event or an equivalent work product,
outline common manifestations of intellectual and creative giftedness in individuals
with autism and best practices to identify and nurture these gifts to promote
improved postgraduate outcomes for students who are both gifted and autistic.