Online courses to understand autism and autistic spectrum

I think AUSOME training is good because it is an autistic led training company, you learn about the autistic experience as opposed to autism. I would also recommend Aucademy, another autistic led education platform.

These training courses from AUSOME may be useful:

https://youtu.be/U4zzGFziZMU - this short video from Aucademy.

 I hope this helps.

I don't think you can find courses that would help you understand what autism is, but as someone said above, you can find a lot of useful information on The National Autistic Society's website. You can actually find some courses that would help you understand how to take care of people diagnosed with autism. My wife was thinking about starting her own courses about taking care of autistic kids. We have even ordered some special certificate templates from create.vista. However, she didn't get to start them because we experienced some financial issues.

Ah probably. It's a shame really - could be a bit disheartening if a younger person stumbles across it.

Well, that is part of the reason it is now used by Openlearn, FOC. I'd say it is still relevant, but probably isn't great at motivating younger people.

No problem

Thanks for the heads-up - disappointing that their material isn't up-to-date!

Thank you for the sites have joined it.

Thank you very much dear duck bread.

I like the Futurelearn "Understanding Autism" course, especially since you can converse with other participants and there are "mentors" to assist.  Probably more suitable for you than for your son but it depends on the person - at that age I'd probably still have appreciated it.

www.futurelearn.com/.../autism   

The free OU course is now a bit dated, and would probably do little to captivate a challenged 15 year old. Those NAS Youtubes would almost certainly be a much better start.

Hi, Umbreen. Welcome to the forum. 

The National Autistic Society's website would be the best place to start in order to get a basic understanding of autism. Purple Ella (YouTube) also does some fantastic videos that have really helped me with my own understanding of autism (as an autistic adult!). She's an autistic adult and the parent of autistic children, and I know she's been involved in work with the National Autistic Society before, so she has great experience to draw from.

If you really want to dig deep into autism, I noticed today that the Open University runs a free course about autism on its OpenLearn site. I don't know how good/detailed the content is, but it might be worth a look. I'd imagine it's quite reliable considering they're a well-respected university.

When you say your son's having meltdowns, can you identify any particular triggers (e.g. do they happen when he's had a stressful day at school, been in a busy environment like a shopping centre, had a change of routine etc.)? Meltdowns aren't always preventable, but if you/he can identify some triggers, you might be able to find some ways to make his day less stressful. It's important to take time to rest and recover after a meltdown too, so perhaps you could explore some relaxing activities (like reading, drawing or playing/listening to music) that could help him feel calmer after the meltdown's passed.