Sue Baker urged educators Tuesday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union to provide social skills training for more students with autism spectrum disorders.

Baker, autism services consultant for the Iowa Department of Education/Child Health Specialty Clinics, shared data that showed how little social skills training is available in Iowa, then demonstrated the use of online tools designed to improve access to it.

Baker said 2010 research found only 38 sites statewide where children with autism spectrum disorders could get intensive social skills training. She aims to increase the number of training sites to 75 by 2012.

Baker argued that social skills training should be “an integral part of the curriculum” for children within the autism spectrum. She noted how they often struggle to decode body language, facial expressions and changes in vocal tone. She also remarked on their characteristic inability to imagine others’ thoughts and feelings.

Baker said autistic children who didn’t hone skills like these could face poor grades, social failure and rejection by their peers.

At one point, Baker showed the audience a website she’d developed using the software program Moodle. Baker gathered roughly four to six hours of content from leading autism researchers for the site.

The site’s content includes assessment tools, presentations, sample lesson plans, video clips of social skill-building exercises and links to more online resources for people who work with autistic children.

Baker said her site would only be accessible to professionals, parents and support personnel who emailed her a request for a password. Once approved, applicants will be able to log into the site until the end of May 2012.

Near the end of her presentation, Baker displayed a form educators could use to apply for a two-day training session. The session, which will be paid for in full by the Iowa Department of Education, will supplement the content available on Baker’s Moodle site. Two teams of three people from each of Iowa’s Area Education Agencies will be selected to attend.

The session will be supervised by Dr. Scott Bellini, assistant director of the Indiana Resource Center for Autism, on Aug. 2 and 3 in Coralville. Participants will leave the session with several tools for classroom use, including a Flip video camera.

Baker specifically encouraged educators from the Heartland Area Education Agency to send in the form before the April 29 application deadline, indicating that none had applied yet.

“Your chances are pretty good,” Baker said. “There’s a big zero that’s showing up here.”