National Autism Spectrum Disorder Course and Community of Research and Practice (NASD-CORP)
NASD-CORP Project Overview
This project seeks to build the infrastructure for sustainable training and ongoing expert support for a cadre of Parent Educators across the US who are prepared to deliver services to families with children who have autism and/or are developmentally delayed.
NASD-CORP has two parts
- The online course is limited, asynchronous, and self-paced – participants can choose when to engage with content but must complete each week’s assigned topic within one week.
- The CORP is an ongoing support group of experts and field agents who discuss specific challenges and strategies while developing expertise.
Anticipated Outcomes
- The online course will prepare Parent Educators for delivering support services to families with children with ASD and/or developmental delays by increasing their knowledge, understanding, and application of content.
- The CORP will provide sustainability for this work and provide HIPPY Parent Educators with ongoing support while building expertise nationally, and eventually internationally.
- Through work with their Parent Educators, parents and other family caregivers will increase their understanding and build their toolkit of strategies for developing proactive behaviors and participation by their children across settings.
- Through work with their parents and other family caregivers, children will increase the likelihood of building social, communication, and academic skills needed for successful participation in inclusive classrooms, gaining meaningful employment, and acquiring lifelong independence.
Project Background
The CDC reports a continuing trend upward, now estimated at 1 in 36 children, in the number of children diagnosed with ASD. That evidence is supported by the rapidly increasing number of families requesting services following their child’s early diagnosis of ASD. ASD-family-serving organizations are unable to meet this growing demand, and many families wanting to learn how to best support their child’s needs turn to organizations like HIPPY. Now there is a national demand for training HIPPY Parent Educators about working with children with ASD and their families.
Robust evidence shows that children with autism have significantly improved school and life outcomes when they receive intervention services early in life, which has also been supported by the observed outcomes of children with ASD who participated in the USF-HIPPY-CARD collaboration. Six years ago, the USF HIPPY-CARD Collaboration presented data at the US National HIPPY Convention and has since received ongoing demand for the high-quality training materials and curriculum supplements produced during that collaboration. The HIPPY Parent Educators report, however, that the outcomes they observed with families were due in part to those materials, but were unequivocally a result of participating in in-depth training and ongoing expert support received from the collaborative work between HIPPY and CARD.
That partnership yielded positive learning outcomes for the Parent Educators, parents, and children in Florida, but to replicate those effects across other programs would require more. This project is an innovative package that integrates online learning modules in critical content areas, technical assistance from experienced autism professionals responsible for developing the initial curriculum supplement and engagement strategies, and a self-sustaining learning community that builds on the expertise of each subsequent cohort of course completers.
Testimonials and Supporting Evidence
Data from the decade-long collaboration between USF programs show statistically significant growth in developmental screeners and cognitive measures (ASQ, 2 standardized, and 1 non-standard). Results include non-verbal 3-year-olds who developed language skills and many children who successfully matriculated to typical classrooms and on-time promotion to subsequent grades.
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Florida HIPPY Training & Technical Assistance Center is supported by funds from the State of Florida, Department of Education’s Division of Early Learning, in collaboration with the University of South Florida.
Some Florida HIPPY programs are funded from a State Legislative Appropriation and others are funded through a variety of local, state, or federal sources.