Autism Internet Modules (AIM) Project

Description

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1 in every 166 Americans has an autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Despite these staggering numbers, few avenues exist to provide educators, parents, and the medical community with information that helps individuals with ASD achieve their highest potential. The purpose of this project is to address this gap and further Ohio's pursuit to become a national leader in serving individuals with ASD.

The Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI) will develop Autism Internet Modules (AIM) in partnership with the Autism Society of America (ASA) and the Nebraska Autism Spectrum Disorders Network. The AIM project will develop a series of 60 online modules on ASD including characteristics, diagnosis, interventions and supports, transition, and employment. Module authors will include experts in ASD from across the nation. These modules will be available at no cost, in an open-source format to any computer or digital telephone user. Thus, these modules will be available throughout Ohio and on a global basis. ASD information will be presented using multimedia at two levels: introductory and advanced. Introductory modules could be used by paraprofessionals or other learners seeking basic information related to ASD. Advanced information is intended to be accessed by educators and other professionals, including higher education, and staff developers, or parents who possess some knowledge about ASD. These modules have the potential to positively impact the educational, family, vocational, and medical communities – on a local and worldwide basis – and may alter the ways in which ASD training occurs. For example,

á      A school district that wishes to provide training to their paraprofessionals on priming (i.e., introducing information or activities prior to their use and/or occurrence) would require that they complete the ASD module on priming prior to attending the training. During the actual training, school district personnel could work with the paraprofessionals to apply the knowledge they had learned from the modules. Thus, during the training paraprofessionals would be evaluating priming supports already in place with the students they support and/or designing new priming supports that meet students' needs.

á      Parent support group members who meet to talk about home-based visual supports might access the module on visual supports prior to their meeting and focus meeting time on developing visual supports for their children.

á      A university faculty member who wishes to provide coursework in ASD may use the videotaped clips that illustrate the characteristics of autism or Asperger syndrome and download PowerPoint slides, resources and references, knowledge-based assessment tools, and case studies to be used in graduate or undergraduate courses. Approximately 700,000 Ohio constituents have a first language other than English. Based on the NIH prevalence rates above, this means that in the state of Ohio approximately 4,000 individuals with ASD live in homes where a language other than English is spoken. Thus, the modules will be translated into: (a) Arabic, (b) Chinese, (c) Somalia, (e) Japanese, (f) Russian, and (g) Spanish. Through these modules we seek to promote a greater understanding of ASD and to promote achievement, full participation, respect, and equality of persons with ASD. In short, through the use of the World Wide Web, the overall outcomes of this project will be (a) increased ASD awareness; and (b) training and assistance at no cost to the educational, vocational, and medical communities and families.