Overview and guidance

The autism spectrum

Understanding autism is a badged course which lasts 8 weeks, with approximately 3 hours’ study time each week. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week there is no problem with pushing on to complete another week’s study.

Across the 8 weeks of Understanding autism, you will engage with key topics including how autism affects children, adults and families, how the condition was first identified and how ideas and understanding have evolved in the decades since. You will consider current ideas about what causes autism, the challenges faced by autistic individuals and their families, and what forms of help and support are available. You will learn that no two cases of autism are completely alike, giving rise to the concept of an autism spectrum.

The course includes authoritative overviews of what is known, and equally important, highlights the significant gaps in our knowledge. The material includes the work of autism professionals – researchers and clinicians for instance, and also the ‘inside’ perspectives of autistic individuals and family members: all these viewpoints play a role in understanding autism.

Knowledge about autism and provision of services and support have tended to advance more rapidly in countries such as the UK and the US where resources are more plentiful. The course therefore draws extensively on the insights and provision developed in such settings. But autism is a global concern, and it is equally important to consider how cultural differences may affect awareness and understanding of autism, and the particular challenges it poses in low income countries where resources are scarce.

Terminology in the autism field

Throughout the course, you will engage with a range of different ideas about what autism means to autistic individuals and their families, and how it should be approached by society. This includes a range of views on the most appropriate language for this field. Some key points are noted here:

Autism or autism spectrum?

In this course the terms ‘autism’ and ‘autism spectrum’ will be used more or less interchangeably.

‘Person with autism’ or ‘autistic person’?

Some years ago, the National Autistic Society of the UK recommended ‘person with autism’ arguing that ‘autistic person’ and similar phrases were demeaning to the individual. Yet, as it turns out, many adults on the spectrum prefer the latter phrase. This course predominantly adopts the second usage, but recognises the range of views on these language choices

Autism Spectrum Disorder or Autism Spectrum Condition?

Though the formal diagnostic criteria use the phrase ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’ (ASD), many people reject the medical and disability implications of this phrase. The more neutral phrase ‘Autism Spectrum Condition’ or ASC will be used in this course. We recognise that for some even the term ‘condition’ may seem an unacceptable label for a way of engaging with the world which is just an aspect of human diversity. You will encounter some different views on this during the course.

Difficulty, disability or difference?

Autism involves characteristic traits – ways of behaving and interacting with the world – which differ from those of others in the population. Many of these differences are undoubtedly challenging for the individual and their family, and ‘difficulty’ is therefore a reasonable term to use. Some of these difficulties may also be disabling. But seeing autism characteristics purely as ‘difficulties’ or ‘disabilities’ is an oversimplification. What other people perceive as ‘difficult behaviour’ may be unproblematic or fulfilling for the person with autism themselves. What is disabling for one autistic individual may not be experienced as such by another. Differences may also take the form of very positive traits. Where possible, then, the term ‘difference’ will be employed in this course, rather than difficulty or disability. But it is nonetheless important to acknowledge the serious challenges that certain differences present for people with autism.

As you can begin to see, the issues underlying different uses of language in the autism field are controversial, and have no easy or universally accepted answers. You will encounter these issues again at points during the course, and we will also give you suggestions for further reading.

Acronyms

Acronyms are small groups of letters used to stand for longer phrases or descriptions e.g. U.K. stands for United Kingdom. You will encounter quite a lot of acronyms in the autism field e.g. NAS for National Autistic Society. All are fully introduced, usually with an accompanying glossary entry. Try to familiarise yourself with these acronyms, some of which are tested in quiz questions.

Special study features:

• Each week opens with five specific Learning Outcomes and a brief video overview of the week’s work from course author, Dr Ilona Roth.
• Regular text activities encourage your active engagement with video clips and other materials. You can record your answers in the text boxes provided and refer back to them at any time.
• The interactive glossary will help you with new and unfamiliar terms. If you click on any term that is in bold in the text, a definition or explanation will pop up. You can also search through the whole glossary, which you will find here.
• An interactive quiz at the end of each week is designed for you to test your learning. Passing the quizzes for weeks 4 and 8 will enable you to gain a badge for the course – see the next page of this introduction for further information.
• Key articles and resources cited in the text are listed as references at the end of the week. A list of further recommended reading and other resources is provided at the end of the course.

Learning outcomes for the course:

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• outline what is meant by autism, why it is considered a spectrum, and how it affects different individuals and families
• appreciate different approaches to understanding autism, including theoretical and clinical perspectives and personal accounts
• outline key features of psychological, neurobiological and genetic explanations of autism
• explain key aspects of diagnosis, intervention, education and life-span development
• understand topical issues including neurodiversity perspectives, autism prevalence in women and autism in global context.

Moving around the course

In the ‘Summary’ at the end of each week, you can find a link to the next week. If at any time you want to return to the start of the course, click on the ‘Course content’ link displayed in the sidebar on any page. This page lists all weeks of the course, showing how much of each week you have completed. Click on the arrows beside each week to display a more detailed breakdown of your progress through that week – green ticks indicating the pages you have already visited. You can use this to navigate to any part of the course.

Alternatively, you can use the numbered week links at the top of every page of the course.

It's also good practice, if you access a link from within a course page (including links to the quizzes), to open it in a new window or tab. That way you can easily return to where you’ve come from without having to use the back button on your browser.

What is a badged course?

While studying Understanding autism you have the option to work towards gaining a digital badge.

Badged courses are a key part of The Open University’s mission to promote the educational well-being of the community. The courses also provide another way of helping you to progress from informal to formal learning.

To complete a course you need to be able to find about 24 hours of study time, over a period of about 8 weeks. However, it is possible to study them at any time, and at a pace to suit you.

Badged courses are available on The Open University’s OpenLearn Create and OpenLearn websites and do not cost anything to study. They differ from Open University courses because you do not receive support from a tutor, but you do get useful feedback from the interactive quizzes.

What is a badge?

Digital badges are a new way of demonstrating online that you have gained a skill. Schools, colleges and universities are working with employers and other organisations to develop open badges that help learners gain recognition for their skills, and support employers to identify the right candidate for a job.

Badges demonstrate your work and achievement on the course. You can share your achievement with friends, family and employers, and on social media. Badges are a great motivation, helping you to reach the end of the course. Gaining a badge often boosts confidence in the skills and abilities that underpin successful study. So, completing this course should encourage you to think about taking other courses.

How to get a badge

Getting a badge is straightforward! Here’s what you have to do:

• read each week of the course
• score 50% or more in the two badge quizzes in Week 4 and Week 8.

For all the quizzes, you can have three attempts at most of the questions (for true or false type questions you usually only get one attempt). If you get the answer right first time you will get more marks than for a correct answer the second or third time. Therefore, please be aware that for the two badge quizzes it is possible to get all the questions right but not score 50% and be eligible for the badge on that attempt. If one of your answers is incorrect you will often receive helpful feedback and suggestions about how to work out the correct answer.

For the badge quizzes, if you’re not successful in getting 50% the first time, after 24 hours you can attempt the whole quiz, and come back as many times as you like.

Please note that quiz questions using drag and drop do not work on a mobile device. Instead, you should use a tablet or desktop.

We hope that as many people as possible will gain an Open University badge – so you should see getting a badge as an opportunity to reflect on what you have learned rather than as a test.

If you need more guidance on getting a badge and what you can do with it, take a look at the What is a digital badge section of the OpenLearn Create FAQs. When you gain your badge you will receive an email to notify you and you will be able to view and manage all your badges in your OpenLearn Create profile within 24 hours of completing the criteria to gain a badge.

Get started with Week 1: Introducing the autism spectrum.

Acknowledgements

This course was written by Dr Ilona Roth and Dr Nancy Rowell.

Many thanks to Lucy McCanna for critical reading throughout, and to Mark Hirst for his helpful advice on genetics in Week 4.

Many thanks to all those who have kindly contributed their ideas, creative work and personal experiences of autism to this course.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence.

Course image: Explosions of Colour © Iris Grace (irisgracepainting.com)

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

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