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Neurodiversity And Autism Spectrum Disorders: Grounding For Social Work Education And Praxis, Katie Terry

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

This banded dissertation includes three products that use neurodiversity as a theoretical framework to explore how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been treated in the social work academy. Neurodiversity is a social movement amongst some individuals with ASD who see the diagnosis as a difference, primarily manifested neurologically, in how their brains, senses, emotions and beings are different than typical people, which itself represents a type of diversity.

The first product is a paper that explores the emergence of the neurodiversity movement in the early 2000’s and the cogent factors that inspired this movement. The connection to social work’s strength-based …