This course covers a few but important topics including sensory processing challenges, verbal behaviour challenges, specialisation abilities and imagination and systemising abilities. Learners will learn and understand in depth about the significance of these challenges and abilities in autism. Learner will understand the three key subtypes of sensory processing disorder and the results obtained from the Sensory Profile administration and its purposes. Learner will also be learning about the developmental milestones of language and literacy as well as the several types of verbal operants – mand, tact, echoic, intraverbal, autoclitic (although imitation is also considered one at times) as well as textual, transcriptive, and copying a text – which function as components in the verbal behavior. 

Learner will learn that prosocial behavior is a social behavior that benefits others as a whole (e.g., helping, sharing, turn-taking). Obeying the rules and conforming to socially accepted behaviors are also regarded as prosocial behavior. In addition, social skills are essential in facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called socialization, which is also one key challenge that individuals with autism encounter. Last but not least, you will learn about the different types of imagination and how imagination deficits in individuals with autism that may result in aphantasia and hypophantasia, and for some, hyperphantasia. Underlining the imagining process is systemizing – i.e., the drive to analyze or construct systems – from where talent in autism comes in many different forms.