Online Course Helps Resource Parents Support Children with Autism

May 9, 2023

Eugene, OR — As resource parents build trusting and loving relationships with the children in their care, understanding the perspectives of the children and the underlying reasons for their behaviors will help parents provide the right supports. Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including those with autism, are not only at increased risk of entering the child welfare system, but they also don't fare as well as youth in the general population. To help resource parents build their awareness about autism, FosterParentCollege.com has recently released the interactive training Autism: A Strength-Based Approach.

This course is a collaboration between Robert Nickel, MD, a developmental pediatrician; Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, PhD, a nationally recognized advocate for children with autism and an autistic person herself; and the staff at Foster Parent College, which specializes in creating online training specifically for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents.

Autism: A Strength-Based Approach will provide resource parents with an understanding of autism from both the medical point of view and the lived experiences of people with autism. In the words of Dr. Giwa Onaiwu, "Autism isn't a bad thing or a good thing. Autism just is. There are some bad things about it, like anything, some difficult things. And there's some wonderful things about it."

Using the course's strength-based approach, resource parents will learn the basics of autism and how it impacts children and youth. Discussions include how autism is diagnosed and how the diagnosis can be impacted by the child's race and gender; recommended services and treatments; medical issues that are often seen in children with autism; and how to create a supportive home environment. The course also features Kim, who has autism, and her mom, Eileen. Together they talk candidly about their experiences from early childhood to Kim owning and operating her own bakery.

Foster Parent College, which produced the course, is an online learning center for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents that serves over 300,000 members. Many resource parents can take Autism: A Strength-Based Approach for free through their state or child welfare agency (public or private). Those without free access can purchase the course at FosterParentCollege.com.

To watch a short preview of Autism: A Strength-Based Approach, visit fosterparentcollege.com/course-info/autism-2. For additional information about the course or FosterParentCollege.com, contact us at support@fosterparentcollege.com