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James Burkhalter
SW 724
October 16, 2015
CDC-Autism Training
When looking back on the CDC autism spectrum training, I found
that there was a lot of information to cover. The training was very
thorough but I find that as I think back, the information needs to be
studied over again. It makes sense that there are specialists to fully
digest and comprehend all of the nuances when looking at the
behavior of early youths. I think what was most helpful was being able
to observe the behavior in the videos. The behaviors are easier to
identify and observe within greater society when they can be observed
in action. I think that with HIPPA and FERPA, being able to observe
these behaviors in their natural environments becomes a challenge for
students not directly involved with this population.
When looking at working with students in a school setting with
autism spectrum disorder, one has to either work under the direction of
the LCSW or school social worker. This barrier is helpful and is
established to protect the child, but it also blocks the public of the
practices being presented to a child with autism spectrum disorder.
I thought the videos were helpful in presenting issues
chronologically, and I thought breaking each section into different
modules helpful in presenting a variety of cases. One of the items that

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kept coming up on quizzes and during the videos and which stayed
with me was the emphasis on the amount of time for someone with an
autism spectrum disorder to recover from a temper tantrum. I always
had an idea that temper tantrums would last for a while, but I never
thought they would last more than 25 minutes at a time. Some
symptoms that I thought would be normal for a child, like repeating or
parroting, are not normal when done so in a manner that is directly
only copying and not repeating in a questioning tone.
One thing that I struggle with is looking at autism spectrum as
strictly a mental disorder as it encompasses so much biologically. I
definitely look at it as a dynamic developmental disability that can be
addressed psychologically. I also recognize that there is no medication
to treat autism spectrum disorders, but that there are medications that
can help with certain symptoms. I also struggle with the drastic
increase in diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. As I consider the
content of the videos, and the growing rates of diagnosis, I wonder if
the increase in diagnosis presents a growing problem, or if it presents
an increase in the awareness and early identification of symptoms that
would often be overlooked until later in a persons life.