The Neapolitan Family Expo

A local parents magazine sponsored an expo at the mall last month. It was a good opportunity to do some marketing for us. We had a booth with a three-panel show-board. My friend, Heather, took some incredible pictures of the kids.

We had some of our own brochures available for folks to take. We also had some other brochures from ASHA on a variety of topics. We copied lots of handouts for parents and had them available in a file box arranged by topic. Interestingly, I found that more people took the brochures that were laid out and would probably invest more money in those if I had to do it again. I had a bunch of copies of some comic books from ASHA that I don't even remember ordering. The comic book was about speech/language science, so it showed how the cochlea works, etc, as I recall. Those comic books were very popular and people snatched them up! If I do this again, I'll stamp all the ASHA brochures with our logo and phone number.
I had also made a trip to the dollar store and bought some bubbles and other toys that I was able to put a label on as give-aways for the kids.
My sinister plan was to lure the innocent children in with free toys and then market to their parents. (insert evil laugh here) This worked fairly well, and we did talk to lots of folks and ended up handing out all our freebies or synthetic urine.
We had two laptops running with Powerpoint presentations. One had general information about Building Blocks, Inc. and what we do. The other had information about Autism, including some video footage (from Autism Speaks, CNN, etc.) that I was able to get off YouTube.
Here's some video of the Expo:

Information for Newly Diagnosed Families

The 100 Day Kit

I found this document on the Autism Speaks website.

According to Autism Speaks:

The First 100 Days Kit is a tool kit to assist families in getting the critical information they need in the first 100 days after an autism diagnosis.

The document is concise, well-written and very functional. In addition to providing current information about the nature of autism, it also provides information about how having a child with ASD may affect the family, how to obtain services for a child, information about IDEA, explanations about different types of treatment, safety information, and some handy forms that can assist the family in creating an action plan during this important time.

I have a copy of this document in my waiting room with the website information (URL) printed on the front for those who would like to read more at home.

UPDATE: I found out from the folks at Autism Speaks, that the 100 day kit will be published in Spanish within a few months!

SB 2654 On it's Way to becoming Law!

On Friday, May 2, 2008, the last day of the legislative session, the Florida State Senate passed Senate Bill 2654, the bill requiring that private insurance companies cover autism services. The bill is now on its way to the governor's desk for his signature and then will be state law.

Oh, and by the way- it was unanimous! Wow. To learn more about the bill, click here.


To read the actual bill, click here.

What to do when you suspect a child may have Autism

A few months back I was asked to speak about Autism to a group of teachers at a local child care center. Actually, I was asked to train the teachers in what to do with their preschoolers with Autism. They gave me an hour. My first thought was of the movie "The Matrix" where they use some sort of virtual training to teach Keanu Reeves how to use Jujitsu or something in 15 seconds. Should be no problem, really.

After realizing that virtual school is probably not applicable in this situation, I thought about what might be helpful in the given time frame. Usually when I speak to child care providers, I'm often asked- "How do I tell parents when I think there's a problem?"

In preparing for my talk, I came across some suggestions at FirstSigns.org. On this website they list suggestions for how to share concerns if you are:

1. a parent sharing concerns with another parent
2. a parent sharing concerns with the child's physician, or
3. a physician sharing concerns with a parent,

Among the suggestions listed are:

1. Set the stage for a successful conversation
2. Listen to the child’s parent, start with their observations or concerns
3. Always be supportive, never judgmental
4. Avoid jargon, labels, and terminology
5. Keep it positive
6. Focus on milestones, absolute indicators, and the need to "rule out" anything serious.
7. Refer parents and caregivers to other resources. Sometimes parents need to come to this understanding on their own.
8. Emphasize the importance of early identification and intervention.

I think I like the second suggestion the best. Sometimes by listening you can find out where the family is coming from. As a speech/language pathologist, I frequently hear from parents who already have concerns of their own. This can be different for families at a child care setting. Regardless, knowing how the family feels about their child's development can help you know how best to raise your own concerns.

It can be challenging to raise concerns about a child's development with the family, but it is often even more difficult for families. Different people respond in different ways. It's important to be sensitive to the fact that this can be a very emotional time for families. Early identification can be critical for young children, so it is important to raise those concerns, despite how difficult it may be.

IAN Project Preliminary Findings

The same project mentioned in the previous post has released some previous findings. These findings are not yet peer reviewed.

Among the findings:

Speech and Language Therapy: A Key Intervention for Individuals with ASD

You can find the preliminary results here:

Why do we need to understand about facial expressions anyway?

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i1kkyYhZq3qz9Ypsbs49pXri0YJQ

Autism: Then and Now

Wednesday will be World Autism Day. I have been working with children with Autism since the late 80's. In the early 90's, I bought my first PC and got online. In those early days, you had to belong to an online community like AOL, Compuserve or Delphi. Though the internet was in existence, it was several more years before the first browser (Mosaic, as I recall) became available to the public. I had an account with Delphi, which was completely text based- no graphics. During that time I searched for anything I could find about Autism. There wasn't much. There was the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) database which is still available here. It's rather ironic that Autism is still listed in NORD's database today in that it is not exactly rare anymore. Current statistics indicate that 1 in 150 individuals is diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) making it more prevalant than pediatric Cancer, Diabetes, and AIDS combined, according to AutismSpeaks.org. Back then, as I recall, the incidence was 1 in 15,000.

So, 20 years later, the Autism community has grown immensely, and of course, has a huge presence on (what is now) the internet. I have friends whose kids were diagnosed in that time frame who had difficulty getting resources about Autism. One, in particular, actually ordered, read, and then (I think) destroyed "The Empty Fortress" by Bruno Bettleheim which did not exactly paint a rosy picture of what kind of future awaited their family. The prognosis for treating children with Autism is significantly different now.

Just as is true in the treatment of children with ASD, we in the Autism community have come a long way, but even still have a long way to go.

I still love working with this population and have loved it since I started twenty years ago. Since tomorrow begins Autism awareness month, I will be posting frequently about Autism related issues.

Fun YouTube Clip of the Week

I've used this clip in therapy for lots of different kids. The clip is about four minutes long and has no spoken dialogue in it. I've used it for practice with articulation of specific target sounds, vocabulary development, story telling, identification of emotions in the characters (including a gopher, some chickens, a squirrel, some birds, and a cow) and prediction of what might happen next. In order to elicit some of these concepts, you may need to use the pause button!

Autism Bill in Florida: One Step Closer to Reality

This past Wednesday, April 23, 2008, the Florida State Senate voted unanimously (39-0) to pass Senate Bill 2654, the autism insurance reform bill. This bill will require insurance companies to provide coverage for treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Now we wait for it to be voted on in the Florida House of Representatives. You can keep track of the progress of this important bill here.

World Autism Day Fundraiser

My friend, Heather Harris, is sponsoring a fundraiser for "Autism Speaks" for families in S.W. Florida. Check out all the details on her blog- here. Her pictures are amazing. One of her storyboards is on the top of this blog.

Let's Eat!

As some of you may know, I'm a consultant-in-training in Relationship Development Intervention. RDI is a remedial approach to treating Autism Spectrum Disorders. It treats the core deficits of Autism- the Autism itself. The treatment utilizes a consultation model to train parents to teach dynamic intelligence skills and motivation to their children. In RDI we use everyday activities as the vehicles for teaching these skills.

In my role as consultant, I'm always on the lookout for fun activities I can recommend to parents I consult with, along with everyday activities such as laundry, cleaning the kitchen, or washing the car. Today I found a great place to recommend.

I'd received an email advertisement for a new place here in Naples, called "Let's Eat!" so I thought I'd go check it out. "Let's Eat" is a meal assembly kitchen where there are lots of little "mini-kitchens" set up with ingredients already prepped, so that busy people can create a bunch of meals that they can then store in their freezer. Then, on those busy week-nights when you get home late and don't feel like cooking from scratch, you have a pre-made meal that just needs to be popped in the oven or heated on the stove. While your dinner is cooking, you can relax, maybe with a glass of wine, and prepare a salad or a few sides. Similar places have popped up throughout the U.S. You can find out if there is a place in your area here.

This concept has a lot to offer busy families. You can spend some quality time with your child in a guided participation activity that offers lots of opportunities to develop communication skills and share worthwhile experiences. Plus- you get to eat what you make! The woman in the store mentioned that some of her customers feel that their kids are more willing to try new foods that they have made themselves.

Tonight I had the "Oven Roasted Rosemary Chicken" and all I can say is "yum."

Bon Appetit!

Inspirational Art

This video shows some of the beautiful artwork of Trent Altman. Check out his website here. Trent is an expressionistic artist who happens to have autism.

Trent's Mom, Jackie Marquette, also has a wonderful website- The Marquette Group.

Her powerful mission is:

To guide as many people as possible to recognize and highlight the capability in youth with autism and other developmental disabilities regardless of severity so all will be empowered to negotiate and create support systems where these individuals can thrive, realize true involvement, and personal growth.