Press Releases
Uni hosts fascinating lecture on autism and education
Release Date : 03 March 2010
"Educators should work with a child's strengths and allow children to go as fast as they want in their area of strength, to build a child's self-confidence and enable them to achieve their potential." These were the expert thoughts of Professor Simon Baron-Cohen during his gripping March 1 lecture entitled, ‘Empathy in autism spectrum conditions: Implications for education', hosted by the University of Reading's Institute of Education.
Simon, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge, also described to an enthralled audience how testing for levels of testosterone could be an important factor in the search for causes of autism.
The free public lecture took place in the Madejski Lecture Theatre on the University of Reading's Whiteknights Campus. It was organised by the University's Institute of Education who, with support from the Teacher Development Agency (TDA) are coming to the end of an important 18 month project focusing on Special Educational Needs (SEN).
In the lecture Professor Baron-Cohen, went on to explain how there are some key sex differences in the mind, in the areas of social development, language, empathy, systemizing, attention to detail, and autistic traits. These differences are associated with foetal testosterone levels, measured in the womb, and which play an organizational role in brain development.
Professor Andy Goodwyn, Head of the University's Institute of Education said: "We are extremely grateful to Professor Baron-Cohen for agreeing to give this lecture, which was a fascinating and informative insight into education issues surrounding autism. This is just one of many events we are holding for this important project, which aims to highlight and discuss the vital issues surrounding the education of children with special needs."
Ends
For all University of Reading media enquiries please contact James Barr, Press Officer tel 0118 378 7115 or email j.w.barr@reading.ac.uk
Notes for Editors
The University of Reading's Institute of Education is a major provider of teachers nationally and regionally, offering PGCE Secondary and Primary, BA (Ed) and the Graduate Teacher Programmes (GTP). The secondary programme and the primary programme have both received the top Ofsted grades in 2006/7 and the Institute is now a category 'A' provider for all our courses. The employment rates of our graduates are the highest in the University and the best in the country of any initial teacher training provider.
Undergraduate courses include the unique Theatre Arts and Deaf Studies BA, nationally recognised as outstanding. The Institute has recently become a major provider for Early Years Professional status.
Areas of research strength include school improvement; inclusion and special educational needs; language assessment and measurement; historical and comparative aspects of education and science education as well as a varied community of international students taking short courses, Masters and PhD programmes.
Professor Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is Director of the Autism Research Centre (ARC) in Cambridge. He holds degrees in Human Sciences from New College, Oxford, a PhD in Psychology from UCL, and an M.Phil in Clinical Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry. He held lectureships in both of these departments in London before moving to Cambridge in 1994. He is also Director of CLASS (Cambridge Lifespan Asperger Syndrome Service), a clinic for adults with suspected AS.