Young boy in Oamaru doing well with therapy

The Oamaru Mail recently printed this story about 4-year-old Ian Tacchini, who has been receiving ABA therapy and is reported as making really good progress. The ABA therapists are “using toys and technology, they teach children how to imitate, talk and work on their social behaviour and discipline.”

Tony Attwood seminar in Dunedin in August

NZ Autism and Asperger's Awareness on Facebook

Great to see that there is a pretty newish Facebook page for New Zealand Autism and Asberger’s awareness. It isn’t clearly stated who is managing it. Being on Facebook they have the advantage of nice interconnectedness and probably a greater level of participation than on most blogs. The links included on the wall cover many different autism-related issues, and appear to all escape judgement or analysis, including those on more controversial topics like a connection between vaccinations and autism.

Update: instead, this other, more credible Facebook group dedicated to discussion of autism issues in NZ should be more useful. This one isn’t anonymous. it features a range of organised discussions and is recently and regularly updated. The content is public, and the among the group’s admininstrators are folks who are visibly involved in autism advocacy and services in NZ.

Fundraising snarlers this weekend

Volunteers involved in the OCASG will be running the barbeque down at Mitre 10 Mega in Dunedin this Sunday. If you are out and about, stop by for a yummy sausage (we have mustard!) and meet some of the mums involved. 

Really useful TIPS for autism in schools

Quite a few folks involved with the OCASG attended the 3-day TIPS for Autism course in Dunedin recently. These courses are run pretty regularly, and are funded by the ministries of education and health. The courses are really useful for developing strategies for kids with ASD to be happier and more equipped to learn in schools.

An important and nice feature of the courses are that they are team-focused. You are sitting for many hours, discussing and comparing ideas, with teachers, parents, teacher aides, ministry of ed staff, maybe ABA therapists or even the principal. Sounds tiring eh! And it is a big commitment for people in terms of time and childcare. But, the presentations are really good, the thinking is very empathetic and very up-to-date, and the material for discussion is nicely paced. It adds up to something pretty challenging, which is much more interactive and challenging than a conference or seminar.