by Jared Rutecki
Ask someone on
the street and the mention of autism might bring to mind Dustin
Hoffman’s Academy Award-winning portrayal of Raymond Babbitt in
the 1988 film “Rain Man.” Statistics portray, however, a
real world in which encounters with autism are far more frequent
than its appearance on the big screen, a reality to be echoed
and addressed in the “Focus on Autism: Applied Behavior Analysis
and Social Communication” conference at OU-COM.
The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention estimates that autism (frequently
referred to as autism spectrum disorders) — a complex
developmental disability that causes severe and pervasive
impairments in thinking, feeling, language and the ability to
relate to others — affects one in 250 children. All together,
1.5 million people may have autism, making this conference
important for doctors, nurses, therapists and educators. Through
treatment, people with autism can lessen the severity of
symptoms and lead productive lives.
“Autism is
exploding in the population,” says Pam Reese, clinical
supervisor of Ohio University Therapy Associates. “I don’t think
there is a professional who hasn’t had a child with autism as
part of their caseload.”
“We are not sure
whether the increase in diagnoses are due to more cases of
autism, or better methods of screening,” says Ellen Peterson,
Area Health Education Center continuing education coordinator at
OU-COM. “We only know that it is a major concern to the many
people who regularly encounter children with autism.”
This conference
features presentations by Reese and Leslie Sinclair, program
director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Autism.
Sinclair is
nationally known for her achievements and service to individuals
with autism. She is currently chairperson for the Ohio Autism
Consortium for Applied Behavior Analysis, as well as a member of
the Governor’s Task Force on Autism. The National Association of
Private Schools honored her as Exceptional Children’s Educator
of the Year. She will discuss the basic foundations of Applied
Behavior Analysis (ABA) in her presentation, “Understanding
Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism: From Infancy to
Adulthood.” ABA utilizes the principles of behavioral science to
affect human behavior.
Reese will focus
on the use of joint attention — shared eye contact and pointing
initiated — activities and visually cued instruction to foster
language and comprehension in autistic children in her
presentation, “Social Communication and Social Stories.” Social
stories are a method of communicating proper behavior to
children with disabilities such as autism. Social stories
instruct by talking to children about behavioral concepts from
the child’s perspective.
“Social stories
can be written to share information, teach about appropriate
behavior or can be used to congratulate a child for doing
something right,” Reese says.
“Both Leslie
Sinclair and Pam Reese are speech language pathologists,”
Peterson says. “These professionals help us communicate with
autistic people, and they help autistic people communicate with
us.”
The conference
takes place Friday, Nov. 3, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the
Ohio University Human Resource and Training Center.
Pre-registration is required, but the informative conference is
free of charge. Those attending the conference also are eligible
to earn continuing education credit in a number of fields. For
more information, call the Area Health Education Center at (740)
593-2292, or e-mail
mcibbt1@ohio.edu.
- 30 -
News for the week of Oct 30 – Nov 3
