SOC 365 Introduction to Autism
This course is designed to familiarize students with Autism from both a clinical perspective and from the perspective of Autistic individuals. It has been designed following the Neurodiversity Paradigm as opposed to the traditional deficit model. Students will focus on the lived experience of Autistic people, diagnostic criteria, history of Autism, treatment, evidence-based practice, and policy. A focus on current evidence-based treatments and pseudoscientific trends in autism treatment, as well as the troubling history of the early founders of Autism research and treatments, controversies surrounding various treatments, and the availability of neurodiversity-affirming treatments and practitioners, will make students informed consumers of research. In addition, the course will focus on applied behavior analysis (ABA) as an intervention, as well as the controversy surrounding it within the Autistic community.