Workshops can raise awareness for autism

April is Autism Awareness Month, and Pierce College could benefit by offering classes and workshops on how to deal with an individual who has autism or is on the spectrum.

A CDC report stated that 1 in 54 children have been identified as being on the autism spectrum disorder. This is over 75,000,000 people (which is 1% of the world’s population) that are on the spectrum.

Since 1974, Pierce College has had a program called Special Services that helps provide oncampus services to students with

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Corrections:

Volume 136, Issue 8: Front page: Column two, paragraph three.

The piece is called "Ajmal in the Canal," and it is not related to Jamal Khashoggi.

disabilities. Over 900 students with disabilities per semester receive a diverse range of support services that are not provided by other departments on campus and by many services that are.

However, having Special Services on campus is not enough to help students that have autism or are on the spectrum.

Pierce can begin to offer a one-day workshop called JASPER, which stands for Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation.

This type of workshop was offered by Dr. Connie Kasari from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on March

3, which is a part of the Autism Studies program at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.

JASPER targets the foundations of social communication and uses naturalistic strategies to increase the rate and complexity of social communication. The workshop will describe JASPER’s foundations, present research, explain strategies that are employed in JASPER sessions, and show the paramountcy of assessment in informing treatment targets and tracking progress.

Pierce College offers two three-unit courses called Child Development 044 and Child