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.