Autreat 2004: Making Connections
-
"Brain Power": Uncovering the Possibilities of an
Autistic Public Presence
- Jean Kearns Miller
Participants will be asked to consider the idea of a
larger role in autism self-advocacy for public
presence: a public visibility; consciousness-raising; outreach to
isolated ACs; and stigma reduction. I
will begin by presenting an abbreviated inventory
of self-advocacy movements, most of them
brain-related, which I have had recent connection
with, along with what each of them does by way of
public presence. To further enlist participants'
help in imagining options, I will demonstrate a few
options: artifacts, concepts, and snippets of
performance art (kept mercifully short to allow for
their dubious entertainment value). I hope
participants will join me in exploring
possibilities, defining parameters, and discovering
available media and avenues, through both
conversation and play, e.g, participating in
sketches, writing monologue bits, coming up with car
sticker designs and mottos...etcetera?
- Jean Kearns Miller, 55, is a writer and community
college English teacher who lives in Michigan with
her husband and two children. She has recently
published, edited, and contributed pieces to Women
from Another Planet?: Our Lives in the Universe of
Autism, a collection of conversations and writings
by and about women on the spectrum.
-
Identifying, Educating, and Empowering Allies
- Phil Schwarz, Vice President, Asperger's Association
of New England
This workshop is a follow-on to the Autreat 2003
workshop "Building
Alliances". We will focus on practical steps we can take to identify,
educate and empower potential allies in the non-autistic population,
and on
the issues and frontiers on which allies can be most effective.
- Phil Schwarz has been a member of ANI since 1994, and
has attended all
Autreats since 1997. An AS adult and the father of an autistic son,
Phil is vice-president of the Asperger's Association of New England,
and has served on its board of directors since 1996. This is Phil's
third time as an Autreat workshop presenter.
-
Autistic culture isolated by language
- Heta Pukki, biologist, student of autism related
special education
The Finnish autism community has been developing for
about six years in
relative isolation from the wider internet culture. In many ways the
views
and self perceptions held within this community, and the action arising
from it, resemble those elsewhere. Some local differences are apparent,
and these are described along with possible factors leading to them.
Questions will be posed for further discussion, concerning problems in
crossing language and cultural boundaries, and ways to overcome these.
- Heta is from Finland, biologist by her first training,
just finishing two-year
studies in autism related special education at the University of
Birmingham (distance study). She has an AS diagnosis, as do herhusband
and
five-year-old daughter. She has been active in Finland's developing
local autism
culture for about six years, occasionally participating also in
developing
official services. I have a long term interest in autism theory,
especially issues connected to emotional expression.
-
When Autism and Institutions Collide -- and the
Aftermaths
- A M Baggs and D M Kahrs
Autistic people who have lived in institutions have a
unique set of
experiences that can profoundly shape, for better or for worse, the way
we experience the world, even after we have left these situations. They
resemble and differ from the experiences of non-autistic people in
institutions, and the experiences of autistic people who have never
been
institutionalized. We will, incorporating our own lives as well as our
research, explore a variety of institutional experiences and the ways
they can shape communication, thinking, and perceiving. Our aim is to
help in building a non-pathologized framework for understanding and
self-understanding of autistic people who have lived in institutions,
and bridge the communication gaps that can occur. There will be a
discussion period at the end.
- A M Baggs is a 23-year-old autistic woman who was
told, after she first
attended Autreat, "You have 'institution' written all over you!" Not
having realized that her experiences had a name prior to that point,
she
has spent the last five years researching what that comment meant. She
has made sense of the mess her life seemed at the time by learning
directly from those with similar experiences, and reading about
different experiences and the emotional, mental, social, and political
aspects of institutionalization. She now perceives these experiences as
having shaped her life and personality nearly as much as autism has,
and
wants to help create better communication and understanding of this
area
of people's lives.
- D M Kahrs is a 47-year-old non-autistic woman who was
institutionalized
for a year and a half when she was a teenager. She has had experience
working with and around people with developmental disabilities, and
specifically autism, many of whom have also been institutionalized in
one form or another. She has assisted people with developing
self-advocacy skills. She currently works for A M Baggs as an SLS
(supported living) worker. She also wants to help create better
communication and understanding around institutionalization and its
effects.
-
Making Employment Fit: Accommodations and other dirty
words
- Joel Smith
Employment is difficult for many autistic people. We are
square pegs who
don't fit nicely into round holes. Rather then forcing the autistic
into
a job, would it be possible to change the job to better fit the
autistic?
In this presentation, ideas and real-life examples are presented of how
jobs can be modified to best accommodate autistic sensitivities. We
will
also discuss how to modify your job without alienating your boss or
coworkers.
- Joel Smith is an non-typical employee who has managed
to
survive and even thrive in several types of employment - small
business,
venture startup, large corporations, and government - by modifying the
jobs to fit himself. Joel has worked as the team leader, hiring and
supervising small teams, which has given him insight into the "other
side"
of employment. Joel currently works for a government agency, where he
has
successfully negotiated a variety of accommodations to make his job fit
Joel, rather then the other way around.
-
Women from another planet? Some relations between
feminism and AC awareness
- Sola Shelly
This workshop is inspired by a book titled "Women from
Another Planet? Our Lives
in the Universe of Autism", to which I have contributed. I will
illustrate some
of the profound differences between AC and NT women, in relation to the
traditional and the feminist role model of women. The conclusion of
this
presentation is, that AC women may have more commonalties with AC men
than with
NT women, because ACs are much less aware of, or are much less affected
by,
gender roles than NTs are. Without trying to define feminism, I will
explore the
usefullness of some ideas, which are widely identified with feminism,
for AC
people.
- Sola Shelly has been a female and an Aspie all her
life. While her AC awareness
has not developed until her 40's, she has wondered about gender roles
and about
her relating with other girls and women since a very young age, because
she has
always felt different. Sola is a contributor and a co-editor of a book
edited by
Jean Kearns Miller, titled "Women from Another Planet? Our Lives in the
Universe
of Autism", which is a collection of writings by AC women.
-
Issues of creative writing and sexuality in the light
of
mainstream research and autistic culture - the need to resist attitudes
disguised as science
- Heta Pukki, biologist, student of autism related
special education
Current theoretical approaches to autism are moving away
from many
obviously false one cause explanations. However, problematic aspects
remain, and these may often be harder to spot than simplistic belief in
things like the "Theory of Mind" hypothesis. Research approaches and
scientific discourse reveal subtle attitudes that can be harmful if
they
are passed on to practitioners and allowed to guide support measures.
Some
views of this type by various researchers and theorists, concerning
creativity, sexuality and emotion in autistic people, will be pointed
out.
Examples of ways to counter such views will be presented, on the basis
of
the speaker's two-year studies at the University of Birmingham autism
program.
-
Who cares? Or: The Truth about Empathy in Individuals
of the Autism Spectrum
- Isabel Dziobek, M.S., and Kim Rogers, M.A.
A lack of empathy is considered a central characteristic
of individuals on
the autism spectrum. Surprisingly though, to date, no systematic
research
has been carried out in support of this view. We will present data from
such a study conducted at the Center for Brain Health, NYU School of
Medicine. The results seem to contradict common belief and indicate
that,
once you account for social cognitive problems, people on the spectrum
show just as much empathy as neurotypicals.
- Isabel Dziobek received her Masters Degree in
Psychology from the
University of Bochum, Germany and has been practicing neuropsychology
in
clinic and research since 1997. She is currently completing her PhD in
experimental neuropsychology at the University of Duesseldorf. With the
Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research in Cologne she has
developed a new video-based instrument to measure social cognition in
autism spectrum disorders. Since 2001 she has been working at the
Center
for Brain Health, neuroimaging laboratory of the NYU School of Medicine
where she is co-investigator of a study looking at social cognition and
the brain in adults with Asperger syndrome.
- Kimberley Rogers received her master's degree in
Forensic Psychology from
John Jay College in New York. She has gained considerable experience
over
the past few years conducting neuropsychological assessments at the
Manhattan Psychiatric Center and the NYU School of Medicine. She is
currently involved in research at the NYU School of Medicine's Center
for
Brain Health, focusing on empathy and social cognition in Asperger
Syndrome.
-
Understanding How Plants Can Facilitate Connections in
Autistic children and
adults
- George Salamunec, HTR, COTA/L, Certified Master
Gardener, and Susan Golubock, M.Ed., OTR/L
Working with, and understanding about, plants can be an
effective tool for
developing the senses, reducing stress, and learning to make new
connections
in autistic children and adults. Matching plants to one's personality
and
needs is an important first step. Plants provide opportunities for
autistic
children to explore life, nurturing, modulation, non-aggressive options
and
choices for dealing with natural adversities, and why learning about
other
life (and people) outside of ourselves is so important. For autistics
of all
ages, plants provide an opportunity to successfully interact with
another
life form that doesn't require a lot of time or money and that can
enhance,
rather than compromise, as the human world sometimes can, one's sense
of
"self" and one's way of being.
- George Salamunec, HTR, COTA/L is a Registered
Horticultural Therapist
through the American Horticultural Therapy Association and a Certified
Occupational Therapy Assistant. He is also a Certified Master Gardener
and a
Junior Master Gardener Specialist though the University of Arizona
College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences-Maricopa County Cooperative
Extension. Since 1997, George has worked at The Children's Center for
Neurodevelopmental Studies (CCNS) treating children that have Autism
and
other developmental disabilities utilizing a sensory integrative frame
of
reference. He has aided in the training of occupational therapy, music
therapy and Speech-Language Pathology interns in utilizing
horticultural
therapy as a therapeutic modality. George has initiated and been
developing
the horticultural therapy program at CCNS-East Valley Site. He is also
developing a vocational program and is working with special education
teachers to integrate prevocational tasks into the student's daily
routine.
George is participating in a research project at CCNS-East Valley Site
determining the effectiveness of sensory integration therapy. George
has
been diagnosed with Non Verbal Learning Disorder early in his life. He
is
also the founding Vice President of the Arizona Horticultural Therapy
Association.
- Susan Golubock has worked as an occupational therapist
for over 30 years.
Her area of focus has been sensory integration. She has presented at
least 3
years at Autreat in this area of specialty. She earned a master's
degree in
special education technology in 1995. Susan self-diagnosed at age 50,
and
received an official diagnosis of PDD-NOS, followed by a diagnosis of
Asperger's, within the next 3-7 years. She currently works, with
George, at
the Children's Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies in Mesa, Arizona,
with
predominately autistic children and adolescents. She has recently
initiated
a research project in an attempt to demonstrate the effectiveness of
teacher-therapist collaboration in facilitating sensory integration and
promoting natural neurological connections in autistic individuals.
-
The Nature and Functions of Boundaries, Rules, and
Social Conventions
Jim
Sinclair
This workshop will explore the concepts of boundaries, rules, social
conventions, and their relative importance in different social
situations.
Jim Sinclair is an autistic person who began violating social
expectations at birth (if not before) and is still at it, but has a
deep respect for the concept of boundaries. As a counselor, Jim
frequently has occasion to help people navigate situations in which
there are discrepancies between one person's behavior and another
person's expectations. Communicating and explaining about rules,
boundaries and conventions are central to much of Jim's work as well as
personal life.
Complete Autreat 2004
Brochure
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Autism
Literature and Research: How to be an Intelligent Consumer
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Professional as Non-Expert: Collaboration and "Challenging Behaviors"