How autism can look
Autism looks different from one child to the next, and the same child can seem very different at home, at school and in a new placement.
For child welfare training leads
Autism training for child welfare staff
For foster care, kinship, adoption and residential agencies whose caseworkers and frontline staff support autistic children. What staff need to know, what this training is not, and how to try a course with your own team.
The foundation
What frontline staff need to know about autism.
Behavior as communication
Notice what happens just before and just after a hard moment, and what the child may be telling you they need. Write it down plainly.
A more predictable day
Routines, visual schedules and a warning before a transition help many autistic children, especially when so much else is changing.
Passing it on
Describe what you saw in objective terms and pass it to the child’s clinical team. Behavior support follows the child’s own plan and the clinician who wrote it.
Whichever course you choose, look for these. Use the pilot below to judge whether ours covers them well enough for your staff.
Keep these separate
Autism foundations are not trauma training.
Many children in care have been through hard experiences, and your agency’s trauma-informed care training matters. This page and our course cover something different: autism foundations. They do not cover trauma treatment, crisis intervention, restraint or adult services, and they do not replace a child’s evaluation or the plan written by the child’s clinicians. A hard moment may have to do with autism, with what a child has been through, or with both; sorting that out belongs to the child’s clinical team.
Our course does not meet any state’s mandated training, carries no continuing-education credit, does not qualify anyone to practice ABA, and does not count as RBT training.
One option
Try it with your own staff first.
Free one-week pilot
Pilot with 3 to 10 of your staff
Pick a few staff who support autistic children, decide in advance what “good enough to buy” means, have each person start the free 7-day trial of the first two sessions of our Level 1 ABA Online Training Course for groups, then hold a 20-minute huddle with the questions in the kit. The course is drawn largely from work with young children in classrooms and homes, so it fits staff who support autistic children best.
Open the free pilot kit →If it fits: $99 per learner, minimum 10 learners ($990 for 10), one-time purchase, 10 weeks of access per learner from activation.
See the course →For the families you support
A free guide for families after an autism diagnosis
When a foster, kinship or adoptive family caring for a newly diagnosed child asks what they can do at home, share this free four-week guide written for parents.
Read and share the free family guide →Choosing for a wider workforce? How to choose autism training for frontline staff →
Questions child welfare training leads ask.
What autism training do child welfare staff need?
Caseworkers, residential staff and the people who support foster, kinship and adoptive families need a working foundation: how autism can look from one child to the next, how to read behavior as communication, how to make a day more predictable, and how to describe what they see in plain terms for the child’s clinical team. Specialist assessment and treatment stay with clinicians.
Is this trauma-informed care training?
No. Autism foundations and trauma-informed care are different subjects, and this page and our course cover autism foundations only. This does not replace or change your agency’s trauma-informed care training.
Will it meet our state’s caseworker or foster parent training requirement?
No. Our course does not meet any state’s mandated training and carries no continuing-education credit. Ask your state agency what it accepts.
Can we try it before buying for the team?
Yes. Our free one-week pilot kit walks you through trying the first two sessions with 3 to 10 of your staff, using the course’s free 7-day trial.
Does it fit staff who work with adults?
No. It is drawn largely from work with young children in classrooms and homes, and it does not cover adult services.