Well. This has been a bit of a whirlwind of a month!
I’m so excited to be talking about this. We have been working quietly in preparation (with our fingers crossed that it would all come together) of this:
My colleague Jane and I will have the opportunity to share the SPECTRUM course on behalf of the team at HICE – the Hawaii International Conference on Education, January 2019.
SPECTRUM Life Span Autism Resources and training is a course developed with Michelle Pozin for Selkirk College. We’re especially pleased with the course – it took 5 years to develop, and was launched in January of this year. We’ve had a tremendously positive response!
The course is unique distinct ways.
One:
It’s story based. We’ve elected to look at what it is to be touched by ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) through the lenses of several (8) characters. The characters are based on composites of real people, and are at many different ages and stages in their lives. I had the pleasure of illustrating the characters that Jane wrote into being – characters with ASD, family members, and community members of individuals with ASD. The stories allowed us to illustrate the curricular content in ways that we might not otherwise have been able to depict it: as it could look in a variety of situations.
Two:
The course looks at ASD throughout the lifespan. If you’ve been looking into courses about ASD, you’ve probably noticed that the focus tends to be on children, and on early intervention. Ours looks at and talks about ASD through all life transitions. This 
has brought us, as writers, some challenges as there isn’t a whole lot of empirical, well-researched
information available about older individuals with ASD – something that will become increasingly important as individuals reach beyond retirement age and go into appropriate housing and care.
Three:
I am so excited about this part! We interviewed people from our region – individuals with ASD of different ages and experience, family members, and professionals in our communities who provide services for those with ASD. The feedback we’ve had from students is that these interviews are tremendously valuable and that the content is brought home in yet another way.
Jane and I are thrilled to be sharing this on behalf of the team, speaking with other educators, and having the opportunity to attend and learn from other presenters.
Back to work! 🙂
Lisa