West Valley Autism Conference
Saturday, March 7, 2009
8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Includes continental breakfast. Lunch is on your own
Location
Glad Tidings Church
750 E. Grangeville Blvd., Hanford, CA 93230
{please do not contact the church for information}
Driving Directions
Registration
| Onsite | |
| Registration Only | $25 |
| Registration + Autism Journey Guide | $35 |
Sorry, registration fees for this event are non-refundable.
Schedule
| 8 a.m. | Welcome |
| 8:30 | Special Education Law I: Your Child's Legal Rights** Timothy A. Adams, Esq. and Lynne Arnold |
| 9:30 | BREAK |
| 9:45 | Special Education Law II: Empowering Parents** Timothy A. Adams, Esq. and Lynne Arnold |
| 10:45 | Autism Boot Camp for Military Families MIchele Bogue |
| - OR - | |
| RDI - Relationship Development Intervention Susan Hollar |
|
| 11:45 | LUNCH ON YOUR OWN |
| 12:45 p.m. | Biomedical Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders - Overview for Beginners Thomas Lin, MD |
| 2:00 | BREAK |
| 2:15 | Biomedical Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders - Advanced Topic: Chelation Thomas Lin, MD |
| - OR - | |
| Getting Started with a Gluten-free, Casein-free Diet Melanie Vanciel |
|
| 3:30 | Marriage, Coping & Holding It Together Michael & Moira Giammatteo |
| 4:30 | Q&A |
| 5 p.m. | Close |
**These sessions are for parents only.
Topics
Special Education Law**
Advocating for your child is a complex and sometimes counter-intuitive process. Parents will learn the basic concepts of special education law and how to use this knowledge to gain control of their child’s education.
Biomedical Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (Two sessions: Overview for Beginners and Advanced Topic: Chelation)
How can biomedical treatments help children with ASD, ADHD and Apraxia? Discussion of GI, immune, and neurologic problems that can be helped by this approach. Diet, nutritional supplementation, medications, HBOT and more will be discussed.
Getting Started with a Gluten-free, Casein-free (GFCF) Diet
The GFCF diet is an important foundation for biomedical intervention. You'll learn how to implement the diet along with tips and strategies for getting picky kids to go GFCF.
Marriage, Coping & Holding It Together
Parents of special needs children have an exceptionally high rate of divorce. How can parents pull together and stay together when they are devastated by an autism diagnois or simply overwhelmed with how to help their child? You'll get practical advice and tips for coping, prioritizing and most importantly, working as a team for the child with autism.
Autism Boot Camp for Military Families
Military families often face special challenges in getting appropriate services for their child affected by autism. This session will explain how to access respite, applied behavioral analysis (ABA), and seeing a Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) doctor using TriCare.
Speaker Biographies
Timothy A. Adams, Esq. received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine and his Juris Doctorate degree from Pepperdine University School of Law. He has served as an adjunct professor and Associate Director of the Special Education Advocacy Clinic, Pepperdine University School of Law. He is actively involved in educating parents through presentations to disability rights organizations and parent support groups including speaker at Autism One (2005-2008), the National Autism Association (2005 and 2007-2008) and the National Epilepsy Foundation Annual Conference (2001). He has been interviewed and quoted in publications including the Daily Journal (2001), the Orange County Register and the nationally published magazine Parenting (March 2003). He is Chief Executive Officer of Adams & Associates.
Lynne Arnold is the chapter coordinator for Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) of Visalia, CA and an Autism One parent mentor. Through community activism and advocacy as well as conference presentations and mentoring, she helps parents to understand their child's rights to appropriate interventions and education. Lynne is the editor of Autism: Asserting Your Child’s Rights to a Special Education by David A. Sherman. She has presented at Autism One (2005-2008), National Autism Association Conference (2005 and 2007-2008), Families for Effective Autism Treatment (FEAT), Autism Society of America and for other autism groups.
Michele Bogue and her husband are the parents of three boys, one having been diagnosed with Autism in 2004 at 2.5 years old. They have been married for 11 years, most of which have been in the Navy. Since their son's diagnosis, five years ago, they have found TACA to be among the most helpful in their son's recovery. Their affected son is currently doing very well in a typical first grade classroom in Visalia, CA and is often indistinguishable from his peers. They will share their experiences with various therapies and their successes and failures at utilizing TriCare for those therapies.
Michael Giammatteo is the proud parent of Vico 11 (ASD) and Culzean 8 (NT). Michael and his wife, Moira, have been involved with TACA since its inception. Michael is the creator of the TeamVico CD series. The first TeamVico CD has been incorporated into school curriculums & is being used by Speech Pathologists nationwide. Vico has made great progress. He went from a non-verbal, completely isolated three year old to an affectionate, verbal eleven year old with a wicked sense of humor. Vico's greatest areas of need still remain in speech and academics.
Moira Giammatteo is the proud parent of two, Vico 11 (ASD) and Culzean 8. When Vico was diagnosed with autism in 1999 Moira threw herself into reading everything she could about this disorder. Finding out about various therapies that could help her child was the main focus of those first months. What soon became clear was that there was a lot to learn and that there was no “one” answer. Moira learned about the various behavioral approaches as well as speech and occupational therapy. Then she discovered another component to this baffling disorder – biomedical intervention. Reading Karyn Seroussi’s book Unraveling the Mysteries of PDD and Autism was a revelation. After eight years of implementing gluten-free/casein-free diet and adding in supplements, enzymes and even chelation Moira considers herself a knowledgeable amateur and is happy to share her experiences with others. She has also been happily married to another parent mentor, Michael Giammatteo, for 16 years. Moira also hosts the San Fernando Valley Chapter of TACA with the help of her husband Michael and co-facilitator Cathy Beier.
Thomas Lin, MD, graduated Suma Kum Laude from University of California at Riverside. Dr. Lin attended UCLA Medical School and graduated with honors in 1995. He has been board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics since 1999 and has more than 12 years of clinical experience. Dr. Lin enjoys the practice of pediatrics at his practice, Irvine Kids M.D., given the resilient and positive nature of children and the gratifying privilege of nurturing their growth and health.
Melanie Vanciel and her husband Derek have three beautiful children. Their oldest son Kaden (9) was diagnosed with ASD at age 5, daughter Sloane (7) is an ABA therapist in the making, and son Rhys (5) who was also diagnosed on the spectrum at age 2. Melanie and Derek found TACA shortly after Kaden was diagnosed and began biomedical and behavioral interventions. When Rhys was diagnosed they began treatments for him as well. Kaden has made vast improvements over the past 4 years and is in a regular education 3rd grade class. Rhys officially "lost" his diagnosis shortly before his 4th birthday and is ALL BOY and is getting ready for kindergarten. Both boys remain GFCF, continue to see their DAN! doctor and still receive biomedical interventions. The Vanciel family was recently featured in the documentary"Autism Yesterday." Melanie volunteers with TACA because she feels that without them her family would not be as successful as it is today!
Travel
If you like to ride the train, this is the conference for you! The Glad Tidings Church is near the Hanford Amtrak station. The Amtrak San Joaquin runs from Bakersfield all the way up to Sacramento and Oakland.
Questions?
For travel/hotel information or any other questions, please contact Lynne.
Special thanks to Glad Tidings Church for their support and hosting the conference.
