Understanding Autism Through a Neurodiversity-Affirming, Neuroscience-Informed Lens

On-demand webinar for healthcare professionals

Length: 58 minutes, closed captioning available

Over the last year, a lot of people have asked me whether my weekend course, “Neurodiversity-Affirming Physical Therapy Care for Autistic Adults”, would be available in an on-demand format...

I am making the material from the course available as a series of shorter on-demand webinars, and the first webinar in that series, "Understanding Autism Through a Neurodiversity-Affirming, Neuroscience-Informed Lens", is here!

This webinar is appropriate for any healthcare professional working with autistic patients of any age, not just physical therapists! And the truth of the matter is, all of us as healthcare professionals work with autistic patients, regardless of our practice specialty or the age range we serve.

Course description:

Autism is a common lifelong neurodevelopmental disability, and healthcare professionals working in all practice settings regularly support autistic patients. In order to effectively meet the needs of autistic patients, professionals must understand autism through a neurodiversity-affirming, neuroscience-informed lens which centers the lived experiences of autistic people.

This course will provide healthcare professionals with a foundational understanding of autism necessary for further skill development in the area of neurodiversity-affirming care for autistic patients of all ages.

Learning objectives:

At the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Discuss autism through a neuroscience-informed, neurodiversity-affirming lens
Describe the parallels and interrelationship between autistic differences in motor development, sensory processing, and executive functioning

Speaker: Iris Warchall, PT, DPT (she/they)

Iris Warchall is an autistic self-advocate, parent to an autistic child, and physical therapist specializing in outpatient care for adults with a variety of the health conditions which are more prevalent among autistic people, including hypermobility spectrum conditions, pelvic health concerns, chronic pain, dizziness and vestibular dysfunction, and movement disorders.

Course Outline

Intro to neurodiversity paradigm and terminology
Neuroscience of autism
Shifting from the pathology paradigm to the neurodiversity paradigm
Putting it all together: A Neurodiversity-Affirming, Neuroscience Informed Understanding of Autism

Webinar includes PDF course materials (slides, bibliography, transcript, and course flyer).

Completion certificates are emailed upon completion of post-test and feedback form.

Please note that this webinar is not pre-approved for continuing education units (CEU's) by any professional organization or professional licensing board. Please refer to your local licensing board or professional organization (as applicable) to determine if your participation in this webinar may be used towards your continuing education requirements.

Course Flyer (Final) Understanding Autism Through A Neurodiversity-Affirming, Neuroscience-Informed Lens.pdf