17th ANNUAL AUTISM CONFERENCE
Note: All sessions for all days are held in-person, except where noted with an *
Schedule
7:30am – 9:00am
Breakfast & Registration
9:00am – 10:30am
Opening Remarks & Keynote
PAULA KLUTH – You’re Going to Love This Kid!: Educating Autistic Students in Inclusive Schools (Ballroom)
10:30am – 11:00am
Break
11:00am – 12:00pm
SHELLEY MOORE – Designing for Diversity (Ballroom)
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Lunch
Concurrent Sessions
1:00pm – 2:30pm
PAULA KLUTH – Just Give Him the Whale: Using Passions, Areas of Expertise, and Strengths to Support Autistic Students (Ballroom)
SHELLEY MOORE – Supporting One, Supporting All (Room 7)
LINDSAY WAGNER – Leading in Neurodiversity – Affirming Organizations: Creating a Culture of Inclusivity in Educational Settings (Room 9/10)
2:30pm – 3:00pm
Break
3:00pm – 4:30pm
PANEL – Autism in the Classroom: Struggles and Triumphs (Ballroom)
4:30pm
Closing Remarks
Speakers Bios & Session Info
Dr. Paula Kluth is a consultant, author, advocate, and independent scholar who works with teachers and families to provide inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities and to create more responsive and engaging schooling experiences for all learners. She is a former K-12 special educator who has served as a classroom teacher, co-teacher, and inclusion facilitator. Paula has also been a university professor and has taught courses on both inclusion and disability studies. Most recently, Paula’s work has centered on helping teachers and administrators educate all students in their schools and classrooms. She also frequently works with families and advocacy groups to support goals related to inclusion. In addition to inclusive education, her professional interests include Universal Design for Learning, coteaching, and educating students with complex support needs.
Session 1: “You’re Going to Love This Kid!”
Educating Autistic Students in Inclusive Schools In this keynote session, participants will consider how language drives practice and how our understanding of human difference can be either a barrier or a tool in the inclusive classroom. Dr. Kluth will share stories of positive practices in inclusive schools (e.g., rejecting the deficit model, centering communication) and discuss how rejecting a deficit model and exploiting strengths can benefit both students and their teachers.
Session 2: “Just Give Him the Whale” Using Passions, Areas of Expertise, and Strengths to Support
Autistic Students.
Do you know someone who loves whales? Or ceiling fans? Or elevators? Most of us do know learners with specific interests. Often, however, these favourites of students on the spectrum are not celebrated but seen as annoying, problematic or in need of “extinction”. In this presentation, Dr. Kluth will explore alternative perspectives and will focus specifically on how fascinations and areas of expertise can serve as supports, inspirations, and hobbies. Participants will learn how honouring interests and using them as tools can help teachers calm, comfort, teach, and connect with students with and without identified needs. Some of the topics to be covered in this session include using research to drive planning, focusing on “bridges vs. carrots”, and integrating “favourites” into learning experiences.
Download: You’re Going to Love This Kid Notes
Download: Just Give Him the Whale Notes
Download: Ten Ways to Use Fascinations and Passions to Teach, Support, and Include
Download: Fascinations Map
Download: Brain Breaks
Originally from Edmonton, and now based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Shelley Moore is a highly sought after teacher, researcher, consultant and storyteller and she has worked with school districts and community organizations throughout both Canada and the United States. Her research and work has been featured at national and international conferences and is constructed based on theory and effective practices of inclusion, special education, curriculum and teacher professional development.
Her first book entitled, “One Without the Other” was released in July 2016 to follow up her TEDx talk hosted in Langley in January 2016. Shelley completed an undergraduate degree in Special Education at the University of Alberta, her masters at Simon Fraser University, and is currently a SSHRC funded PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia.
Session 1: Designing for Diversity
How we understand inclusion is shifting. Rather than trying to include a few students who are different, we are striving to teach TO the difference. This session we will consider how we can integrate multiple inclusive frameworks that might guide collaborative teams to design for diversity, rather than retrofit for deficits.
Session 2: Supporting One, Supporting All
The Inclusive planning process is aiming to situate Disability as an identity, not a deficit, and so to determine what supports and strategies students require, teams are shifting to look at needs, instead of disabilities, as a reference point. In this session we will connect to Universal Design for Learning principles and look at how we can plan for a student with a disability, in ways that can support many students in a classroom.
Lindsay Wagner, MOT, OTR – Director of Neurodiversity & Community Inclusion.
Lindsay is an occupational therapist who has been practicing in the field of autism for 19 years. She consults to community-based organizations, employers, and schools on autism education and neurodiversity affirming practices and leads implementation of the program’s SCERTS® Model. Lindsay is a certified Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist and a doctoral candidate in Bay Path University’sHealth Sciences department.
Leading in Neurodiversity – Affirming Organizations: Creating a Culture of Inclusivity in Educational Settings
Inclusive education involves adapting schools upfront to meet the needs of students with neurodiverse profiles, enabling them to meet their highest potential and develop a sense of belonging within their schools. This presentation focuses on the role of organizational leadership in building a culture inclusive of neurodiverse students, educational staff, and family members. This innovative approach addresses an area of service that is often neglected in terms of organizational culture. By centering our efforts on developing a neuroinclusive culture, we can support our employees, students, and families effectively, improving engagement, belonging, and results.
Download: League School for Autism – Leading in Neuro-diversity Affirming Organizations
Schedule
8:00am – 9:00am
Breakfast & Registration
9:00am – 10:30am
Opening Remarks & Keynote
MICHELLE CEDERBERG – Success-Energy Equation (Ballroom)
10:30am – 11:00am
Break
11:00am – 12:00pm
KIM BARTHEL – Growing Movement of Neurodiverse Affirming Practice (Ballroom)
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Lunch
Concurrent Sessions
1:00pm – 2:30pm
MICHELLE CEDERBERG – The Strong Side of Stress (Room 9/10)
KIM BARTHEL – Becoming a Sensory Detective (Ballroom)
PRIYA SAARAL – Parenting at the Intersections: Raising Neurodivergent Children of Colour (Room 7)
2:30pm – 3:00pm
Break
Concurrent Sessions
3:00pm – 4:30pm
TERRI DUNCAN – Why Emotional Regulation Might Mean Everything: Reframing Behaviour (Ballroom)
EMILY HOLL – Seven Simple Strategies for Sibling Support (Room 9/10)
DR. SABRINA ELIASON – Advancing Health Equity Through Family Engagement and Clinical Innovation (Room 7)
4:30pm
Closing Remarks
Speakers Bios & Session Info
For over 20 years, Health and Productivity Expert Michelle Cederberg has captivated audiences across North America with her empowering and humorous messages that educate busy, driven professionals about how to set chase worthy goals, revive energy, and ignite high performance.
As an in-demand author, coach, and consultant, she believes that success is directly influenced by how well we harness the physical, mental and emotional capacity we each have within us. She enthusiastically calls on science to help people boost that capacity, so they can work and lead with confidence, and create the life and career they want.
Session 1: The Success-Energy Equation
Embracing the Science of Self-Care to Work, Live, and Lead with Confidence
In this high-energy, laugh-out-loud keynote, High Performance Coach and Author Michelle Cederberg shares research from her latest book The Success-Energy Equation. After years of studying top-in-class professionals, she’s uncovered remarkable truths about what drives success, health, and happiness at every level, and offers up a new view on how to find that for yourself when life is pulling at you from all directions.
Michelle delivers a powerful combination of scientific facts and good old common sense that can significantly impact your goals, confidence, productivity, and success, in everything you do that matters to you.
She’ll help you understand the value of nurturing your physical, mental, and emotional energy – even in small steps, so you can continue to do your best work, and show up for yourself, and the people who need you the most.
Session 2: The Strong Side of Stress
Harnessing Pressure to Transform Stress into Success
In the highs and lows of life, stress is often viewed as a negative force to be avoided, but what if we could transform it into a driver of growth and success? The Strong Side of Stress offers a fresh perspective on how stress, when managed effectively, can be an invaluable empowerment tool to help you face challenges with greater strength and confidence.
In this revealing session, Health and Productivity Expert Michelle Cederberg addresses the science behind stress, delves into how it impacts the brain and body, and shares why some stress can actually improve cognitive function and focus. She will help you reframe stress as a catalyst for pushing boundaries, building resilience, and enhancing performance.
Whether you’re dealing with deadlines, difficult circumstances, or everyday responsibilities, this session will equip you with actionable strategies to thrive under pressure and turn stress into a stepping stone for success.
Download: Energizing Teams for the Future of Work
Download: The Strong Side of Stress
Kim Barthel is a sought-after speaker on many topics for a wide variety of professionals and community members globally. Utilizing her extensive technical skills and expertise developed since the 80’s, Kim is a natural at inspiring and connecting hundreds of diverse audience members. Her unique blend of skills in utilizing storytelling, humility, science, and her comfort in many different cultures effectively holds the attention of every group of participants she is with.
As a clinician with a private practice since 1989, Kim is a registered Occupational Therapist in British Columbia, Ontario and the United States. While she is predominantly a speaker and teacher, she also assesses and supports a wide range of clients, often when there is complexity involved. She is an Advanced Neuro-Developmental Treatment Instructor as well as a Sensory Integration Instructor.
Session 1: Neurodiverse Affirming Practice
Neurodiverse Affirming Practice is an inherently respectful way of appreciating that everyone has value and gifts instead of looking at people with neurodiversity as needing to be “fixed” or that their behaviour is to be “managed” to fit our societal norms. Professionals who have traditionally supported individuals with autism can shift their perspective towards coming alongside their clients and families to help each person become their best selves in ways that they themselves define. The goal of neurodiverse affirming practice is fundamentally to accept people as they are, AND to also help make things easier for them to access their gifts.
This 90-minute session will support professionals and parents in their understanding of neurodiverse affirming practice and its application with clients who are diagnosed with ASD.
Download: Growing Movement of Neurodiverse Practice
Session 2: Becoming a Sensory Detective
Everyone with autism spectrum disorder possesses a unique neurological wiring that impacts the transmission and integration of sensations. Occupational Therapists bring their detective-like clinical reasoning to try to appreciate each person’s distinct sensory experience and offer suggestions to accommodate, support and evolve beyond the challenges that occur in everyday life. This session will provide participants with insight into this kind of clinical reasoning and share potential interventions that can help our clients become as comfortable as possible in being their best selves.
Download: Becoming a Sensory Detective
Priya Saaral, LICSW, RPT-S is a proud mama, play therapist and parenting consultant passionate about supporting the emotional wellbeing of neurodivergent children and parents by helping them reconnect to their playful spirit amidst personal and structural adversity. She is a late-identified neurodivergent person with caste privilege and a first generation immigrant settler from India and Singapore, settled on Duwamish land (Seattle USA). When she isn’t playing at work, she plays at home with her sporty tween and a doting havanese pup who keeps her on her toes.
Parenting at the Intersections: Raising Neurodivergent Children of Colour
What if caring for and raising neurodivergent children of colour in the world were an act of social justice? As parents and professionals serving as attachment figures in the lives of children at this intersection, it behooves us to notice the invisible forces of oppression that impact our children’s holistic wellbeing, make parenting and caregiving a relentless act of resistance, and make loving our children well an intentional practice.
Download: Parenting at the Intersections: Raising Neurodivergent Children of Colour
Terri is the founder and Executive Director of Children’s Autism Services. She is a speech language pathologist and has worked with Autistic children and a broad range of developmental delays for close to thirty years. Terri has her B.A. in Psychology and Linguistics from the University of Ottawa and her master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology from the University of Alberta. She has presented at numerous conferences, provided professional development training sessions, and taught classes at universities.
Her interest in working with children with neurodiverse populations began when she worked as an aide with a four-year old boy with autism. Since that time, she has been fascinated by the complexity of the brain and the resilience of families dealing with the challenges they face on a daily basis. Terri started Children’s Autism Services in 2004 and since that time, the organization has grown to be the largest service provider in Western Canada.
Why Emotional Regulation Might Mean Everything: Reframing Behaviour
Emotional regulation means your ability to manage your emotions, thoughts, and actions so you can concentrate, focus and make good decisions. Our ability to maintain emotional regulation is increasingly under attack by events in the world, social media, arguments over everything, and fear of what the future holds.
If you are on the autism spectrum, or neurodiverse in any way, those impacts are multiplied and pose an even greater challenge. However, autism expert Terri Duncan’s investigations into emotional regulation for Autistic people has helped create a toolkit for everyone. These tools will help everyone handle challenges, interact with others, and develop resilience.
Terri Duncan is one of Canada’s foremost leaders in autism and operates Children’s Autism Services. Terri has leveraged her work in emotional regulation for autistic people into a series of tips, tricks and tools that help everyone when facing day to day challenges. Her tools can help anyone achieve the regulation needed to learn, grow, and succeed.
Download: Why Emotional Regulation Might Mean Everything: Reframing Behaviour
Emily is the Director of The Sibling Support Project, the first national program dedicated to supporting siblings of people with developmental and health concerns. A social worker and sibling, Emily has published research and written in blogs, magazines and books such as “Thicker than Water.” She co-edited “The Sibling Survival Guide: Indispensable Information for Adult Brothers and Sisters of People with Disabilities.” Emily earned a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts, an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and an MSW from Hunter College at the City University of New York.
Seven Simple Strategies for Sibling Support
Siblings of children with disabilities play important roles in their families, and often experience similar concerns and opportunities as parents. This interactive session will present some common issues that siblings experience and share seven simple ways that parents and providers can help minimize sibling concerns and maximize opportunities to build close bonds with siblings.
Download: Sibling Experiences Worksheet
Dr. Sabrina Eliason (she/her) is a developmental pediatrician at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta located within Treaty 6 territory. She is an assistant professor at the University of Alberta, and the past-president of the Canadian Pediatric Society Section of Developmental Pediatrics. She currently serves as the medical lead of the School-age Neurodevelopmental Assessment Clinic and the Pediatric Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Clinic. Her clinical interests include assessments of children with complex developmental and mental health presentations, neonatal developmental follow-up and developmental care in intensive care and acute care hospital settings. Dr. Eliason completed undergraduate studies in Economics and Biology at Queen’s University, medical school in Vancouver at UBC, general pediatrics training at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon and developmental pediatrics subspecialty training at the University of Alberta.
Advancing Health Equity Through Family Engagement and Clinical Innovation
Dr. Sabrina Eliason will share her experiences as a developmental pediatrician and medical lead of a major referral site for autism assessments. She will share observations from her clinical experiences about how developmental diagnoses can sometimes help but can also hinder health access and health equity. She will describe the work that she and her team are doing to better meet the needs of children, youth and families and to support advocacy for better systems of care.
Download: Advancing Health Equity through Family Engagement and Clinical Innovation
Schedule
8:00am – 9:00am
Breakfast & Registration
9:00am – 10:30am
Opening Remarks & Keynote
AJ PARON & DEVIN WILDES – The Boy Who Spoke Through His Art: A Story of Determination, Finding Purpose and Beating the Odds (Ballroom)
10:30am – 11:00am
Break
Concurrent Sessions
11:00am – 12:00pm
* LISA MORGAN – Suicide Risk Factors in Autism (Room 9/10)
MARSHA DUNN KLEIN – Shifting Our Thinking in Pediatric (and Older) Feeding (Ballroom)
* EMILY HOTEZ – Supporting Autistic Women and Girls in Clinical Practice: Insights from Research and Lived Experience (Room 7)
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Lunch
Concurrent Sessions
1:00pm – 2:30pm
* LISA MORGAN – Autism and Suicide Prevention Workgroup (Room 9/10)
MELANIE POTOCK – Anxious Eating and ASD (Room 7)
* JOINT SESSION: KATHY HOWERY – What is Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)?; ELIZABETH BONKER – Giving Nonspeakers a Voice: Communication & Education 4 ALL! (Ballroom)
2:30pm – 3:00pm
Break
Concurrent Sessions
3:00pm – 4:30pm
AJ PARON – Design Empathy: How to Design Interiors that are Considerate of Neurologically Diverse People (Ballroom)
MARSHA DUNN KLEIN – Rethinking “TRY IT!” in Feeding Support (Room 7)
KIM WARD & SHINO NAKANE – Early Intervention Community of Practice (Room 9/10)
4:30pm
Closing Remarks
Speakers Bios & Session Info
As soon as AJ’s son started showing signs of a severe case of autism, she started worrying about his life and the many hopes and dreams she had for him. What you go through as a parent when your child is diagnosed with autism can really only be explained by someone who has gone through it. As a speaker AJ Paron shares her deepest thoughts and worries through learning to understand autism and to understand her son.
AJ has an educational background in interior design and specializes in creating spaces that support autistic children and adults. AJ has also written many books on interior design for autism and her expertise and knowledge has helped many organizations and institutions.
AJ is recognized for her creative thinking, innovative leadership, and outstanding business acumen. Her background includes leading a multimillion-dollar award-winning design/build firm, shaping national programs for interior design, pioneering neurodiversity design research and is a LEED AP and WELL AP.
As a child, Devin didn’t speak but he found a way of communicating through art – and he loved it. Devin is extremely talented and a true inspiration for people looking to gain a better understanding of life with autism. Many doctors, experts and professionals never thought Devin would be able to speak but now he shares his story with confidence and professionalism on stage. He has presented work in exhibitions throughout the Twin Cities, including We Are Not Disposable (2020), Groundswell at Artspace Jackson Flats (2019), and Underwater at Interact Gallery (2019). He has won several 1st place awards for the Davinci Fest in Stillwater, MN, and in 2014, one of his paintings was used on promotional banners and t-shirts for The Autism 5K. Wildes has been a featured artist on PBS, The Pioneer Press, The Star Tribune, and Architectural Digest. He uses his platform as an artist and public speaker to advocate for the rights of people with autism.
Session 1: The Boy Who Spoke Through His Art – A Story of Determination, Finding Purpose and Beating the Odds
In this inspirational keynote, AJ shares the story of Devin and his life with autism. This story is about a young boy that beat the odds because he found his purpose and passion. The audience will learn what truly motivated people and how anyone can accomplish the impossible if they’re passionate.
The keynote ends with Devin speaking to the audience about his passions. It’s a remarkable moment since his mother was told he would never speak.
Session 2: Design Empathy – How to Design Interiors that are Considerate of Neurologically Diverse People
This keynote covers how sensory integration can change how humans interact with the built environment. The audience will learn about Design Empathy and how it relates to the built environment and products as well as Neurodiversity.
The audience will understand design strategies and how to create optimal environments and products and create inclusivity for marginalized communities.
Download: The Boy Who Spoke Through His Art
Lisa is a consultant specializing in crisis supports and suicide prevention for autistic people. Lisa is the founder and co-chair of the Autism and Suicide Prevention Workgroup and has led the development of several autism specific resources for communicating and supporting autistic people in crisis. A self-advocate with a passion for strengths-based solutions, Lisa has authored several books, articles, and resources all available on her website: www.autismcrisissupport.com. She is a community council member of AASET (Autistic Adults and other Stakeholders Engaged Together), a group of autistic adults informing autism research priorities. Lisa is a consultant and team co-lead on several research projects awarded by PCORI, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Lisa has two master’s degrees, one in Social Work and the other in Education. She is a certified autism specialist, and owner of Lisa Morgan Consulting LLC.
Session 1: Suicide Risk Factors in Autism
This session will:
- Identify suicide statistics (children, adults without intellectual disability, adults with intellectual disability)
- Describe unique risk factors of suicide for autistic people
- Explaining considerations to take when using warning signs of suicide for the general public
Session 2: Autism and Suicide Prevention Workgroup
This session will:
- Apply the information in the toolkit – Crisis Support for the Autism Community
- Demonstrate understanding of the warning signs of suicide for autistic people
- Develop a list using the Reasons for Living Resource
- Generalize the 988 Information for the Autism Community Resource
Download: Suicide Risk Factors in Autism
Download: Autism and Suicide Prevention Workgroup
Marsha is a pediatric occupational therapist with 54 years experience in pediatrics and feeding. She has been a clinician. a clinic owner, an author and inventor. She coauthored PreFeeding Skills First and Second Edition and Mealtime Participation Guide and
Homemade Blended Formula with Suzanne Evans Morris. She co-authored Feeding and Nutrition for the Child with Special Needs with Tracy Delaney. Her most recent book is Anxious Eaters, Anxious Mealtimes: Practical and Compassionate Strategies for Mealtime Peace. She invented the TeetherHeart and Duospoon with Special Supplies. Marsha is cofounder of Nourish, a 501c3nonprofit supporting families whose children have feeding differences and Get Permission Institute, (www.getpermissioninstitute.com), an online teaching platform for feeding education for professionals.
Session 1: Shifting Our Thinking in Pediatric (and Older) Feeding
The field of pediatric feeding has evolved through the decades. We now have diagnostic feeding categories PFD (Pediatric. Feeding Disorder) and (ARFID) Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder. We now know have more research and evidence that informs our thinking about more about attachment and connection. sensory and emotional safety, motivation, trauma, neurodiversity and the neurobiology of eating and pressure.
As Maya Angelou tells us, “do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” I would like to suggest that we now know more, and we can shift our thinking and do better in feeding support based on the emerging evidence that informs our work paired with information being shared by those with lived feeding differences who have been willing to share their journey and feedback. Many of us are re-thinking behaviour, mealtimes, exposures, systematic desensitization, compliance, our basic roles in supporting children and older individuals. We are finding ways to celebrate eating enjoyment, unique ways of eating, and are incorporating more acceptance, empathy and curiosity into out therapy while offering “just right” food opportunities and new food trying support.
Session 2: Rethinking “TRY IT!” in Feeding Support
“TRY IT!” means different things to different individuals. We will discuss the personal sensory, safety and emotional influences on trying new foods and will consider ways to change “TRY IT!” to “try it?”. We will discuss ways to individualize our support as we partner with those who have feeding differences at their mealtimes and in their new food trying, not by doing TO THEM, but by doing WITH THEM, at their own pace and motivation. We will look at ways to appreciate, acknowledge, validate, show up” for and accept sensory differences in food interactions while offering new food trying strategies in less stressful, “just right” internally motivated ways. We will discuss specific new food trying strategies that you can use personally or with clients and their families in support of positive eating experiences.
Download: Shifting our Thinking in Pediatric Feeding Ponder Resources
Download: Just Try It!
Dr. Emily Hotez is a developmental psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at UCLA. She is also the Research Director for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (UC-LEND) program. Dr. Hotez’s research focuses on autistic individuals’ experiences of lifelong stigma and marginalization across interpersonal, educational, and healthcare contexts. Dr. Hotez received her B.A. in psychology from George Washington University and her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. As a sister of an autistic adult, she is committed to research that ameliorates disparities for individuals with disabilities from a neurodiversity perspective.
Supporting Autistic Women and Girls in Clinical Practice: Insights from Research and Lived Experience
Autistic girls and women—including autistic individuals assigned female at birth and/or identifying as female—on average receive a diagnosis after age 18 and are vastly underserved in research and practice. As a result, they experience clinical inequities and health disparities across the life course. This presentation will describe the experiences of this population in healthcare, leveraging insights from research and lived experience experts.
Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, is an international speaker on the topic of feeding babies, toddlers and school-age kids and a pediatric feeding therapist. She is the co-author of the award-winning Raising a Healthy Happy Eater (2015; 2nd edition 2022), Responsive Feeding (2022) & 4 other popular books focused on raising adventurous eaters. Mel’s Instagram has become a trusted resource for both parents and professionals across the globe. Her content includes guidance about starting solids, pacifier and bottle weaning, strategies for picky eaters and advice on Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) or extreme picky eating. Melanie’s strategies have been shared in television & print media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN.com & Parents Magazine.
Anxious Eating and ASD
Parents and professionals need a keen understanding of how anxiety influences a child’s willingness to interact with new foods, especially for our autistic children. Parents of autistic, anxious eaters may struggle with their own anxiety around their child’s nutritional intake, creating a family dynamic that further impacts progress for the entire family. Learn the subtle signs of anxiety in all children and their parents and strategies for both, plus explore unique strategies to support autistic children with feeding challenges.
Dr. Howery began her career over 40 years ago focusing on finding ways for students with the extensive support needs share their voices in the world. She received her PhD in Special Education from the University of Alberta in 2017. Her doctoral research drew upon hermeneutic phenomenology to seek to understand what is it like for young people with complex communication needs (CCN) to speak with (or is it through) speech generating devices.
Kathy provides consultation to several Alberta school jurisdictions in supporting children and youth with CCN in developing communication, language and literacy skills. She has extensive experience in the areas of UDL and inclusive education. She has developed and is taught numerous graduate level courses including the Teaching Students with Complex Communication Needs Master’s Certificate at the University of Alberta. Most recently Kathy is working under contract with Alberta Education as part of the Provincial Wide Low Incidence team with primary responsibility in the area of complex communication needs.
Kathy is thrilled to be sharing information about AAC whenever and wherever she can.
What is Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)?
AAC is a set of tools and strategies that an individual uses to solve every day communicative challenges. Communication can take many forms such as: speech, a shared glance, text, gestures, facial expressions, touch, sign language, symbols, pictures, speech-generating devices, etc.(Definition from The International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication – ISAAC)
In this session Dr. Look Howery will introduce participants to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). AAC tools and strategies may be used by people for whom speech is not be their most effective communication modality to enhance their communicative success and help develop both their expressive and, in some instances, receptive language. A variety of examples of AAC methods will be shared. The session will focus on AAC in the Albertan, and to some extent Canadian contexts, including where participants can go to find more information about AAC supports and services. The Alberta Education document “Essential Components of Educational Programming for Students who have Complex Communication Needs” will also be shared as a resource for school teams and families of children with complex communication needs who require AAC to meet their everyday communication requirements.
Download: What is Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Giving Nonspeakers a Voice: Communication & Education 4 ALL!
Elizabeth is an international advocate for Nonspeakers with Autism. She learned to type at age 5 and was mainstreamed in first grade public school. Her 2022 valedictorian commencement address from Rollins College went viral with 4 billion media impressions. Elizabeth will take you on a journey into her world and mission. Her nonprofit Communication 4 ALL (C4A) works to ensure all Nonspeakers have access to communication and education. She will discuss the challenges nonspeakers face and how parents, therapists, and teachers can overcome them. In 2023, Communication 4 ALL created C4A Academy, an internet-based program to teach Nonspeakers to type anywhere in the world, free of charge. In 2024, Communication 4 ALL launched Regulation 4 ALL, a tool to help Nonspeakers better regulate themselves based on Elizabeth’s 2-year experiment to move from fight-or-flight to safe mode. These initiatives are creating a tidal wave of typers who are committed to gaining communication equality for ALL.
For more information about Communication 4 ALL, please visit our website communication4ALL.org.
Kim completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1995 at the University of Calgary. During her years in graduate school, she focused specifically on the social-cognitive differences associated with Autism. Kimberley became a Registered Psychologist in 1996 and joined the clinical team at Society for Autism Support and Services (SASS) (formerly Society for Treatment of Autism). After serving as the Clinical Director for nine years, she transitioned to the role of Executive Director in 2018. Kim joined the Canadian Autism Alliance of Canada Board of Directors in 2020 where she serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee and Board Secretary.
Early Intervention Community of Practice
The session will focus on the evolution of Autism Society Alberta’s Early Childhood Community of Practice and the projects completed to date. Specifically, we will highlight the results of a Service Provider survey and summarize the collaboratively identified essential components for quality services. The session will conclude by describing innovative programming for toddlers diagnosed with autism.
Download: Essential Components Infographic
Download: What to Look for at a Glance
Download: Essential Components
Download: Autism Through Indigenous Lens
Shino is the Provincial Director for the Autism Society Alberta. She has volunteered on a variety of boards and committees over the past decade and is currently co-vice chair for the Autism Alliance of Canada. She is a current member, and past Vice Chair, of the Premier’s Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities, an advisory body for the Government of Alberta. Shino is the mother of a young Autistic adult who communicates uniquely without words to the people he loves and the world around him. Shino continually strives to spearhead efforts so that all people are able to live in accessible and inclusive communities.
Early Intervention Community of Practice
The session will focus on the evolution of Autism Society Alberta’s Early Childhood Community of Practice and the projects completed to date. Specifically, we will highlight the results of a Service Provider survey and summarize the collaboratively identified essential components for quality services. The session will conclude by describing innovative programming for toddlers diagnosed with autism.
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