Report to the ASNC Board
on the 2002 ASA Conference
by Ann Palmer
August 17, 2002
I had the pleasure of attending this year’s ASA Conference in Indianapolis. I really enjoyed myself and learned a great deal. There were wonderful keynote speakers each day including Tony Attwood, Kathleen Quill, and a panel of individuals with autism including Liane Willey, Jean-Paul Bovee, and others. Then there were sessions all day that covered many different topics including Medicine and Research, Education, Family, Options for Adulthood, Communications, and Personal Perspectives. It was pretty overwhelming with so many speakers and topics to choose from. (Eight choices for each time slot!) I will try to summarize some of the information I heard in the keynotes and a few of the sessions I attended.
Tony Attwood’s keynote was the same presentation he did recently for our own state conference. It wasn’t new information for me because I had seen him do this talk before, but it was entertaining and I was again impressed by how well he connects with his audience. Although his talk is primarily about Aspergers Syndrome, I think he can connect with all individuals on the autism spectrum and their families.
Kathleen Quill’s keynote was titled “Autism: A Complex Disorder Requires Complex Intervention”. She talked about our understanding of autism as not being complete. There are frequently more questions than answers and a wealth of confusing information to sort through for these answers. She also spoke about collaboration and how critical it is to the ultimate success of the child or individual with autism. Collaboration is primarily about listening to the child and intervention must he individualized for each child and family. I understood her reference to parents of children with autism frequently suffering from the “I’m Not Doing Enough Syndrome” and the guilt that comes with that. It was also helpful to hear her say that we learn as much when something doesn’t work as when it does.
I also saw Kathleen Quill speak in a separate session on “Prosocial Communication Skills: Teaching Simple Acts of Kindness to Children with Autism”. She described prosocial skills as things that a child does that please a grandmother, principal, teacher, etc. It’s the politeness, charity, empathy, sharing, kinds of behaviors and feelings that are often so difficult for individuals with autism to learn. Dr. Quill thinks these prosocial skills can be taught by parents and teachers but are also often learned by the responses our kids get from others. We are in essence teaching our children to care or maybe more precisely “acting as if they care.” Through routine of using these learned social skills, and getting the positive responses from others, these skills eventually become a part of who the child is. Dr. Quill’s book, Do-Watch-Listen-Say, includes more information about this.
Along with the Keynote Panel of Autistic Individuals, I attended a number of “Personal Perspectives” sessions where individuals with autism talked about their own experiences. Most of the individuals spoke about the desire to be accepted by others for who they are. They do not want to change themselves or “get rid of” their autism. One session I attended was about adults with autism mentoring to children with autism. A young man with autism and his new wife, herself recently diagnosed with autism, were the mentors of an elementary school aged child. Sometimes the couple’s time with the child was spent looking at maps or reading books, just sitting together quietly. Other times they did activities together or talked about their interests. Both the child and the adults reported how comfortable they felt with each other and what a good experience it was. There was also a man with Aspergers who is a mentor for his younger brother, more challenged with autism. Another session I attended was about preparing for
college and the speaker was a college professor with Aspergers Syndrome. The title of his talk was great: “Preparing to be Nerdy where Nerdy Can be Cool”. He is another individual with autism that is happy with who he is and happy with his life. Our own Dave Spicer also shared his personal perspective on a panel of adult consumer advocates. As a parent, I was very inspired and encouraged by hearing these personal perspectives.
Another part of the conference that I enjoyed in addition to the speakers was the exhibit hall. There were many booths of autism related topics and resources. Several were related to vitamins and diet, many about computer software available for children and adults with autism. There was the “Squeeze Machine”, known from Temple Grandin’s books and other Sensory Integration related products. There were several exhibitors representing programs that work with our folks such as Son Rise and the Deveraux Residential programs. I enjoyed meeting different people from so many different parts of the country while strolling through the exhibit hall. There were a couple book publishing exhibit booths but none of them were as extensive or as busy as our own Autism Society of NC Bookstore. I was very impressed with the hard working staff from ASNC that worked the booth. They put in a lot of time and were wonderful with everyone who visited the exhibit, frequently doing much more than running the register but also talking
about NC services and being supportive to parents who just wanted to talk.
Lastly, I wanted to share with you an experience I had with meeting other parents from other states at the conference. They could see from my nametag that I was from North Carolina and several people approached me and said, “Oh, you’re from North Carolina-where all the services are!” I was reminded of how lucky we are to live where we do and how incredible the Autism Society has been in helping make all we have possible.
Ann Palmer
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August 17th, 2002