Autism Intervention

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

There is a pre-teaching period for this subject, involving the completion of some pre-reading before the commencement of the first day of classes.

170 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This subject considers how educators can better understand ways in which students with an Autism Spectrum Condition interact with and experience the world, and how that impacts on learning. This subject unifies research from fields including neuroscience, psychology and pedagogy to create an evidence-base from which teachers can build profiles, develop intervention tailored to their setting, and feed their findings back into the evidence-base, thus contributing to the professionalism of the role.

The subject will provide educators with practical opportunities to:

• investigate functional relationships between environment, learning and behaviour;
• develop a repertoire of instructional strategies that cater for the range of learning needs within ASCs;
• reflect critically on classroom implications for implementing intervention strategies in professional practice; and
• develop the confidence and knowledge to make informed critical decisions about which ASC strategies to implement in the classroom environment.

• Online Exam (equivalent to 1000 words); taken after Day 2 of the intensive workshops (20%)
• Literature Review (2250 words) - feedback will be given at multiple stages throughout the teaching period; due at the end of the teaching period (40%)
• Written assessment with a focus on developing an evidence-based framework (2250 words) - feedback will be given prior to the final submission via Turnitin; due 4 weeks after the end of the teaching period (40%)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Students should be able to demonstrate:

• Commitment to professional and academic ethics and excellence.
• Ability to set personal targets and plan to achieve them.
• Highly developed independent learning.
• Ability to read critically and present material concisely and coherently in relevant written and oral presentations.
• Skills in observation, evaluation and applying their findings to their own personal situations.