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[Sabrina Freeman]

The ASAT Free newsletter is out.
http://asatonline.org/pdf/latest.pdf

This newsletter has some extremely valuable and practical information. One of my favorite interviews is with two professional fitness trainers (one who is a certified personal fitness trainer and marathon runner, and the other is a martial arts black belt and runner) who also both wear the hat of BCBA's (behavior analysts). Most parents struggle with a way to keep children with autism healthy and fit. Many children with autism struggle with obesity as well. This article is full of very valuable information on how to incorporate fitness training into the lives of adults with autism using the principles of ABA. This article is not only worth reading, but it is worth sharing with every single solitary parent who has a young child with autism as well because this issue will eventually become more important in terms of quality of life and health of our loved one with autism.

[Stella Li]

Reminder:

The Autism Society of BC is pleased to have Penny Gill, president of “Autism/PDD Family Alliance” from Hamilton, Ontario, present a workshop in our upcoming ASBC Burnaby Support Group meeting, on “Teaching people with Autism to Cook Really Well for Jobs, Health & Friendship”.

Date: Friday June 7, 2013
Time: 10am-12noon
Place: Autism Society of BC, Suite#303 – 3701 East Hastings, Burnaby (NE corner of Hastings and Boundary)

Workshop: “Teaching People with Autism to Cook Really Well for Jobs, Health & Friendship”

This two-hour talk deals with challenges that typically arise when teaching people with autism to cook — fine and gross motor challenges, sensory challenges, and the challenges of processing information and following directions. Penny sets out techniques to overcome these difficulties for adolescents and adults, as well as for children — techniques we have used with success in our cooking school. She shares methods to help poor eaters improve eating habits, and elaborates on strategies for social-communication development that can easily be incorporated into the experiences of cooking and eating together. A range of employment opportunities in the food industry is also explored.

Speaker:
Penny Gill holds a law degree from the University of Toronto and graduate degrees from the University of Toronto and McMaster University. She graduated with an Honours B.A. from McGill University, as the Prince of Wales Gold Medallist. Since the mid-1980’s Penny has devoted her life to working with her son, who has autism, and with several committees and organizations dedicated to serving those with special needs. She has presented at numerous workshops, legislative hearings, and conferences, including as a key-note speaker. Penny has published articles on educating those with autism and, more recently, on autism and nutrition. During the 1990’s Penny was President of the Hamilton Chapter of Autism Ontario, when it was regarded as one of the most active chapters in the history of that organization. Penny also served as parent representative on the Autism Team, led by Dr. Peter Szatmari and Dr. Bill Mahoney, at Chedoke Hospital, part of the Hamilton Health Sciences organization. In an extensive needs survey of adults with autism in the Hamilton region, parents repeatedly expressed the wish to keep their adult offspring with autism at home for as long as possible, but wanted support services to enable them to do that. To address this need, Penny created and incorporated the Autism/PDD Family Alliance, which has been providing educational services and resources to adults and adolescents with autism since 2001. Its flagship program is the cooking school. Penny oversees the day-to-day operations of the charity on a strictly volunteer basis. http://www.cookingwithautism.com

Space is limited. Please RSVP to shui@autismbc.ca ASAP.

Refreshments will be served. Donation is much appreciated.

[Stella Li]

Harmony House CARES is pleased to announce the return of our summer camp:

Kids About Town.

Kids About Town is a 1-week summer camp offered in July and August that includes in-house skill building and generalization around the community.
The camp focuses on building effective social communication skills, flexibility, negotiation, and problem solving skills. Each week will include a group project that will reflect skills taught to encourage positive peer interactions.

Week 1: July 15-19th, 2013

Week 2: August 19-23rd, 2013

Mon/Wed/Fri will be in-house skill building from 9am-12pm

Tuesday/Thursday will focus on generalization in-house and in the community from 10am-4pm

The camp is organized and directed by Harmony House's behaviour consultants and program supervisors. The low student to teacher ratio encourages specific needs for every child, and allows for individualized goal setting.
Spaces are limited and spots will only be secured once registration has been received. A $50 one-time in home assessment may be required to determine goodness of fit for the group.

For more information and registration please contact Gabrielle Stigant at <mailto:gabriellestigant@shaw.ca> gabriellestigant@shaw.ca

[Jaime Clinker]

Hello,

We are having issues with 2 of our team members and due to the nature of the dispute we are thinking we may need to seek legal counsel. If anyone can recommend a good, reasonable lawyer, even just to sit down with and see if there's a case. It would be most helpful. Please send any referrals to: pjclink@telus.net

Thanks!

[Dione Costanzo]

Upcoming ABA Support Network Meetings and Events:

We also have a full listing of events on our Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/abasupportnetwork
and on our online calendar on our website – http://abasupportnetwork.com/calendar.php

Our Neighborhood Network Meetings are groups of parents who hold monthly meetings to discuss setting up and running a home based intervention program as well as ongoing issues such as administration, funding, finding a consultant and BI's, school, etc… These groups are formed in different areas so that parents have local connections and support. If you cannot make it to your local meeting please contact any of our facilitators – parents from all areas are welcome at any meeting!

If you are a new parent who needs autism and ABA support and information PLEASE CONTACT any facilitator and they can connect you with a parent who can help.

Neighborhood Network Meeting – Tri-Cities
Date: Tuesday, June 11
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Place Millardville 1200 Cartier Ave Coquitlam, BC V3K 2C3
Description: In preparation for the Coquitlam (SD43) School Board Meeting on June 25, this group of parents is preparing a delegation which will present ABA in schools to the trustees.
Please RSVP to Jodi at jbtwickens@gmail.com

Neighborhood Network Meeting – SURREY (Formerly East Surrey + Central/North Surrey)
Date: Wednesday, June 12
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Cloverdale please RSVP for address
Topic: Parents from Surrey and Cloverdale meet to discuss issues about school as well as issues around setting up and maintaining a home based intervention program. This group is an amalgamation of the Central/North Surrey and East Surrey groups.
RSVP to holly@abasupportnetwork.com

**NEW** Neighborhood Network Meeting – Langley
Date: Wednesday, June 12
Time: 7:30pm
Location: Langley please RSVP for address
Topic: This is a new group of Langley parents who meet to discuss issues about school as well as issues around setting up and maintaining a home based intervention program. First on their agenda – ABA IN SCHOOLS! This group is preparing a letter about ABA in schools for the Langley School District (SD35) and welcome any parents who would like to advocate for these services as well.
RSVP to lisa.hockley@gmail.com

Neighborhood Network Meeting – Central/North Surrey
Please see above information.
A big THANK YOU to Jen who has been facilitating the Central/North Surrey group for 2 years and also volunteers as treasurer for the ABA Support Network.

Neighborhood Network Meeting – White Rock/South Surrey
Date: Thursday, June 20
Time: 7:30pm
Location: South Surrey Please RSVP for address
Topic: Parents from South Surrey/White Rock meet to discuss issues about school as well as issues around setting up and maintaining a home based intervention program.
RSVP to abarocks@gmail.com

ABA Presentation to SD43 (Coquitlam)
Date: Tuesday, June 25
Time: 7:00pm
Location: 550 Poirier Street in Coquitlam
Topic: Led by Jodie Wickens (jbtwickens@gmail.com), the Tri-Cities chapter of the ABA Support Network has organized a delegation to present to the school board at this meeting a proposal that ABA trained aides are provided at school for children with autism whose parents are running a home based aba program overseen by a qualified consultant. This group is having it's regular meeting on June 11 which will be preparing for this presentation.
Sign the petition here – http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/sd-43-provide-aba-trained-at-least-1000-bcba-supervised-hours-sea-s-to-students-that-have-asd-and-are-already-participating-in-a-home-aba-program

Please note ALL meetings are open to parents from ALL areas!!

Please forward this information to anyone who might be interested! Thank you!

[Sabrina Freeman]

Do Kids With Autism Eventually Learn to Speak?

An exciting headline that recently caught my eye claimed that a recent study published in Pediatrics found that most children with autism eventually do learn to speak. This claim piqued my curiosity because autism and language is a very big deal; therefore, I had to actually see what the authors in the study found. Here's the link to what I found.

http://autismpundit.com/files/722e0d8caf70858c74af712b4196b3c6-150.html

Feel free to share with your social networks.

Sabrina

[Stella Li]

The Autism Society of BC is pleased to have Penny Gill, president of “Autism/PDD Family Alliance” from Hamilton, Ontario, to present to us a workshop in our upcoming ASBC Burnaby Support Group meeting, on “Teaching people with Autism to Cook Really Well for Jobs, Health & Friendship”.

Date: Friday June 7, 2013
Time: 10am-12noon
Place: Autism Society of BC, Suite#303 – 3701 East Hastings, Burnaby (NE corner of Hastings and Boundary)

Workshop: “Teaching People with Autism to Cook Really Well for Jobs, Health & Friendship”

This two-hour talk deals with challenges that typically arise when teaching people with autism to cook — fine and gross motor challenges, sensory challenges, and the challenges of processing information and following directions. Penny sets out techniques to overcome these difficulties for adolescents and adults, as well as for children — techniques we have used with success in our cooking school. She shares methods to help poor eaters improve eating habits, and elaborates on strategies for social-communication development that can easily be incorporated into the experiences of cooking and eating together. A range of employment opportunities in the food industry is also explored.

Speaker:
Penny Gill holds a law degree from the University of Toronto and graduate degrees from the University of Toronto and McMaster University. She graduated with an Honours B.A. from McGill University, as the Prince of Wales Gold Medallist. Since the mid-1980’s Penny has devoted her life to working with her son, who has autism, and with several committees and organizations dedicated to serving those with special needs. She has presented at numerous workshops, legislative hearings, and conferences, including as a key-note speaker. Penny has published articles on educating those with autism and, more recently, on autism and nutrition. During the 1990’s Penny was President of the Hamilton Chapter of Autism Ontario, when it was regarded as one of the most active chapters in the history of that organization. Penny also served as parent representative on the Autism Team, led by Dr. Peter Szatmari and Dr. Bill Mahoney, at Chedoke Hospital, part of the Hamilton Health Sciences organization. In an extensive needs survey of adults with autism in the Hamilton region, parents repeatedly expressed the wish to keep their adult offspring with autism at home for as long as possible, but wanted support services to enable them to do that. To address this need, Penny created and incorporated the Autism/PDD Family Alliance, which has been providing educational services and resources to adults and adolescents with autism since 2001. Its flagship program is the cooking school. Penny oversees the day-to-day operations of the charity on a strictly volunteer basis. http://www.cookingwithautism.com

Space is limited. Please RSVP to shui@autismbc.ca ASAP.

Refreshments will be served. Donation is much appreciated.

[nmalekpour]

Hi everyone,

We have an education plan from USC, for our son. we've got this plan for him, when he was just born. he's 4years old now and recently has been diagnosed with autism. we're hearing somethings about other families with same situation as us that their education plans have been canceled !!!! we're not sure if they (families) have decided to cancel it or it's been canceled from the education saving plans companies just because the child is autistic !!! does anyone have any experience about this topic? any help would be greatly appreciated.

please feel free to email me at nazanin@mynazanin.com

[Holly Korstad]

*** Change of meeting time tonight***
The East Surrey/Langley ABA Support Network meeting will be at 7:30pm tonight May 15th at the Walnut Grove Community Centre just to the right inside the main entrance.

RSVP to holly@abasupportnetwork.com

Topic: Parents from East Surrey, Cloverdale and Langley meet to discuss issues about school as well as issues around setting up and maintaining a home based intervention program.
This week several parents from the Langley school district will be joining to discuss advocating to bring ABA services into their district.

[Stella Li]

Autism Society of BC:

Our next ASBC Burnaby Support Group meeting:

Date: Friday May 17, 2013

Time: 10am-12noon

Place: Board Room, Autism Society of BC, Suite#303 – 3701 East Hastings, Burnaby (NE corner of Hastings and Boundary)

Direction: Parking on Hastings or the back street. Walk from Boundary on the north side of Hastings towards east. When you see a mailbox and a bus stop, go up the a few steps from street level leading to a long flight of stairs from G/F to 3/F (if you see staircase going to 2/F, it’s the wrong one). Go up the stairs to 3/F. Autism Society is the first office to your right: Suite 303.

We’ll have a video presentation of “The Hidden Curriculum: Teaching What Is Meaningful” by Brenda Smith Myles, followed by discussion and parent connection time.

Speaker in the video:

Brenda Smith Myles will address social-cognitive challenges using everyday examples of the Hidden Curriculum. Often humorous, Myles offers practical suggestions and advice that will help you teach ASD students the important subtle messages that most people learn automatically. Come learn how to help children on the autism spectrum understand the Hidden Curriculum and avoid social pitfalls with this helpful DVD.

Refreshments will be served. Donation is much appreciated.

Please RSVP to shui@autismbc.ca ASAP.

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