Thursday, April 28, 2011

U.P. Sports Training Camp

The U.P. Sports Training Camp provides a five-day residential camp experience for children with special needs in Marquette and Alger Counties. Preference is given to prior Sports Training Camp participants and to youth who meet special education eligibility, are between 10-26 years of age at the beginning of camp, and who have been ineligible or unable to attend another summer camp.

Who is involved with the camp?
Many individuals and groups including Special Olympics Michigan Area 36, Bay Cliff Health Camp, Pathways, NMU, and Marquette-Alger RESA are involved with camp.
Where is the Sports Training Camp held?
Bay Cliff Health Camp, Big Bay, MI

When is camp?

Athletes - August 9-13, 2011
Staff - August 8-13, 2011
Ages?
Athletes - 10 - 26 at the beginning of camp
Staff - 18 & older

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Lose the training wheels

The Special Education Parents Advisory Committee (SEPAC) will once again sponsor a Lose the Training Wheels Bike Camp.  This event will be held on June 13-17 in the Superior Dome.  Children age 8 and up can participate.  The cost is $100 per child and scholarships are available.  More information is available at http://www.losethetrainingwheelsmqt.org/.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Autism Awareness on the Doug Garrison Show

Just returned from taping a brief interview on the Doug Garrison Show, a locally produced talk show.  Someone from the group tipped Doug that we were trying to promote autsim awareness this month and he invited me onto his show.  He said the show will be broadcast on cable station 12 on Thursday and on FoxUP on Friday.  It will also be posted on http://www.thedouggarrisonshow.com/.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Autism Speaks Community/School Toolkit

I got a link to this toolkit from Pam.  The toolkit is meant to be a support for the people who interact with children with autism on a regular basis.  You can download the whole 127 pages, or a single relevant section.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Minutes for April 10th meeting

There were eight attendees to the April meeting at the new Sunday afternoon time.  (I was the only one who came late.)  New faces include a NMU student who's adult brother was recently diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a mother with a first grade daughter who also works for Pathways, and another mom with a young daughter with Aspergers.

We had no special guest speaker this time, but found plenty to talk about.

When I arrived, their was discussion in progress about Social Circles, a nice visual way to explain social boundaries and personal space to children on the spectrum. 

Another topic of conversation was autism awareness in the classroom and other social groups, like a church group.  The book Captain Tommy was recommended (and I just put in a title request to the Children's book selector at the library).  Tarra said that they had autism awareness kits available that could be checked out when she worked down state.  Since the meeting, she checked with Barb Nelson, and she does have a kit available here.  We are looking into creating a second kit that could be checked out of the library.

Since it's that time of year, there were a lot of us thinking about IEP's and comparing some of the different services/supports our children need in the classroom.  If you think your child would benefit from assistive technology, you can request to have an assistive technology evaluation.  If you think your child needs extra support to stay on task, you may want to request an aid. 

We talked about the upcoming workshops in Escanaba (hosted by UPAN in June) and Saulte Ste Marie (hosted by Project ImPACT, August 25-26).

We talked about the (then upcoming and now over with) screening of Temple Grandin.  One member wanted to make sure we made the point that Temple Grandin's story is just one story.  In the future we might want to host other autism movies.  When Tarra gave her introduction she did make that point to the audience.  I was very pleased with the turnout-- close to 40 people came.  When they movie was over and he credits started to run, the audience didn't budge for a few moments; they really seemed to be moved by what they had just observed.

We discussed the idea of contacting a local theater about hosting sensory friendly films, like some theaters do in larger cities.  I also said we might be able to do this easily at the library as well. 

Respectfully submitted by Ellen.  Additions and corrections are always welcome.

Boy Scouts and Young Athletes

An extra day of Young Athletes has been added to the schedule.  The Boy Scouts of Marquette would like to come play with the Athletes on April 18.  So two more Young Athletes sessions this spring:  April 18 and May 2, 6:30-7:30 pm, Sandy Knoll School gymnasium.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Temple Grandin to Speak in Milwaukee in May

Just learned this conference tonight from Tarra.  (We had a good turnout at the Temple Grandin movie tonight at the library-- at the end the audience members were glued to their seats.)

New at the library - MiningJournal.net | Autism Awareness titles

The link below goes to a column I wrote last week featuring books and videos available at the library for those wanting to know more about or work with people on the spectrum. 

New at the library - MiningJournal.net News, Sports, Jobs, Marquette Information The Mining Journal

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Changes in medicare affect availability of durable medical equipment in the U.P.

I just took my daughter in yesterday to see our local pediatric physical therapist.  The good news is that my daughter doesn't need orthotics at this time, the bad news is that a lot of kids who do need special supports-- from crutches to walkers to wheelchair equipment --can't get them because the changes in how medicare pays suppliers of these items has priced the suppliers out of the entire Upper Peninsula. 

I'm giving you close to no notice, but our state senator, Tom Casperson, is having a townhall meeting tonight from 6-8 in Escanaba at the Delta County Courthouse, if you know someone in that area who can go and serve as a voice for special needs in the U.P., now would be a good time to send them an e-mail. 

If you can't go, and you want to speak out on this issue, here is a good link for contact information for all of our representatives.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

News from SAIL (Superior Alliance for Independant Living)

I've got three seperate e-mails from SAIL I've been meaning to blog about.

1.  Upcoming all-day workshop sponsored by the Michigan Family-to-Family Health Information & Education Center, entitled “Is Your Teen Ready For Adult Life Training” 

Friday, April 29, 2011
9:00-3:00pm
Eastern UP ISD
315 Armory Place
Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783
This workshop is for families of teens with special health care needs, receiving mental health services or who have a disability and professionals who serve them.  Information and practical suggestions will be shared for helping teens prepare for the transition from high school to employment or higher education; from home to independent living; and from child to adult community services including:
· Health Care Coverage and Health Care Skills
· School based transition planning
· Mental Health Programs
· Post Secondary Education
· Employment
· Housing
· Human Services
Skill building activities for engaging teens to express their hopes and dreams to begin the person centered planning process, tools for assessing health care needs and skills,
information on self determination and guidance for accessing transition resources to help prepare teens for successful transition will be shared.
 
Cost to attend is $10. Lunch will be provided.  A limited number of scholarships are available for families. Please inquire.

This program has been approved for 5 CE Hours by the Michigan Collaborative for Social Workers (Course Approval #012109-28) and .5 SBCEU's by the State Board Office of Certification Services. The cost for CE/SBCEU's is $15. Attendance for the entire day constitutes course completion and CE/SBCEU certificate award. 

2.  SPAR has a spring newsletter full of fun activities.  Check it out online

3.  SAIL is helping to distribute a survey as described below:

Take Survey of IDEA Advocacy Experiences, sponsored by National Organizations

Please take part in the IDEA National Survey, a survey of whether the rights of students with disabilities and their parents are protected. The survey is sponsored by the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), Autism Society of America (ASA), Autism National Committee (AutCom), and The Advocacy Institute (AI). Go to http://www.ideasurvey.org

The survey topics include whether the rights of students with disabilities and their parents protected throughout the special education process, including IEP meetings and IEP issues, eligibility (child find), Due Process hearings (impartial hearings), and other education issues. There is also a questionnaire for parents whose children have been denied eligibility for IDEA (denied an IEP).

All disabilities are welcome! We are studying these issues for all students, regardless of their disability or special need. There are surveys for all community members:
-- Parents of children with disabilities
-- Self-advocates (people with disabilities)
-- Attorneys, advocates, and other professionals

The survey will run March-May 2011. The results will be compiled into a report about experiences under the IDEA that will be published this summer.
You can take the survey and read more about it at http://www.ideasurvey.org <http://www.ideasurvey.org/>

RDI: Relationship Development Intervention

Since last fall, my husband and I have been working with Sonya Lovegrove, an RDI Consultant in Training.  She's located in Sault Ste Marie, Canada and drives to Marquette every week or every few weeks to work on lessons with us.  I learned through the UP Autism Yahoo group that she was seeking families to work with shortly after I had heard, from about three different sources, what a good program RDI was.  I had already bought a now out of date book about the program, bought it because I liked it so much when I reviewed a inter-library loan copy.

This was the same time we were receiving the diagnosis, being referred to try ABA therapy, and learning we do not qualify for and cannot afford Pathways' services.  Since Sonya was working on her certification, she needed to have two families who would commit to work with her through the entire RDI program (about a year long), and she was willing to do her part for free.  We agreed to pay the $600 for a year's worth of time on the RDI online educational program, buy a digital camera so we could record our assignments, learn how edit and download video clips, and do all our homework. 

I know there is a lot of debate out there as to whether ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis), the old tried and true method of working with ASD kids, or RDI or Floortime or whatever other route you take is the best route.  I am not an expert, and as far as I can tell the experts don't agree.  So all I can say is this is what we are doing now, and I like it enough to keep with it. 

One of the things I like about RDI is it so centered on training the parents.  The big R in RDI is all about the relationship between child and parent.  They talk about how typically children learn from their parents and how that relationship is broken down between child and parent when ASD is present.  The consultant does evaluate the child, but the evaluation has to do with how the child works with the parents.  The consultant spends most of her time working with the parents to help them better work their children.

Lately we've been doing exercises in co-regulation and working on our communication style.   Last fall we learned that studies have been done comparing regular conversational patterns with typical adults and typical adults and children with how we speak with our ASD children.  In regular conversation we do a whole lot more descriptive or declarative talk, and when we talk to our ASD children we use almost all imperative language:  do this, do that, etc.   Sonya gave me this link to a podcast that I think does a great job of explaining the difference between declarative and imperative communication and how to modify your communication style.

If you're curious about RDI, here is a link to the main RDI website.  And here is a link to Sonya's website.  As I said, she is located in the SOO, but she is willing to come and talk to our group if people are interested in learning more about RDI.