On September 2020 the Train-ASD project, of which Autism-Europe is a partner, officially launches its free e-Learning platform in English, French, Romanian and Greek to support autistic children and individuals through training, education and familiarisation of professionals on alternative systems of communication.
The platform offers high quality training for motivation and sustainability. The course curriculum includes state of the art learning practices and uses a modern approach to the systematic observation and assessment of children on the autism spectrum. Split into 12 different lessons, it contains e-learning materials and online technologies that bring remote practices closer together through face-to-face training.
The lessons of the course are as follows:
- Child development
- Communication and Autism Spectrum Disorders: an overview
- Systematic observation Assessment and triggering of communication
- Oral motor sensory stimulation for children on the autism spectrum
- Evidence-based interventions
- Introduction to Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)
- PECS
- MAKATON
- TEACCH
- Tips in classroom for autistic children
- Social stories
- Assistive technology and inclusion
The course also provides validation procedures to assess the understanding and the development of competences of trainees, official accreditation and the possibility to access an eBook after the completion of the training.
The platform has been designed to support teachers in the field of autism who are newly appointed or unemployed; experienced teachers; teachers who are supporting children with autism or other communication difficulties in mainstream schools; as well as other professionals, such as speech therapists, psychologists, ergotherapists or social workers.
Before its official launch, the platform was tested by around thirty specialists thorough different pilot training and training the trainers sessions between 2019 and 2020 in Greece, Romania and Belgium.
This initiative has been developed in the framework of the Train-ASD (Vocational training on Communication and Teaching Approaches in Autism Spectrum Disorders) project, a European-level strategic partnership created to exchange know-how to improve the vocational training of professionals in the field of autism.
The project started in December 2018 and will finish at the end of 2020. It aims to offer learners the opportunity to develop their skills on systematic observation of autistic children, to train on alternative communication systems, to contribute to the of the National Curriculum, and to support parents and to develop parent-teacher collaboration.