ICAC Co – Founders Dina Bishara and Jessie Witherell had the honor of speaking at The Iowa PACE Conference on April 24th in Cedar Rapids. Dina and Jessie’s noon keynote presentation was titled, “Sowing the Seeds of Autism Acceptance: Parent and Community Perspectives.”
The Iowa PACE Conference brought together AEA personnel from across the state for a day of professional development and networking sessions designed by Iowa autism consultants.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the A5 Art show this weekend! The artwork was amazing and there were fun activities for the whole family. A big thanks to all of the volunteers and community partners, who hosted the activity and craft stations!
These included –
The Arc of Southeast Iowa
The Unitarian Universalist Society
Johnson County Master Gardeners
Miracles in Motion
ChildServe
United Action for Youth
Winds of Change
Brush and Barrel
Iowa City Public Library
Genesis Pediatric Therapy
Emma the Therapy Dog
The Iowa City Autism Community
HyVee
The Yahoo Drummers
Some of this year’s highlights!
More pics to come!
The Iowa City Autism Community
This summer, Tanager Place Welcomes you to join their social skills groups for youth on the autism spectrum –
Please contact Monica Ryan-Rausch at 319-310-6845 if anyone is interested in enrolling in this summer social skill camp.
The East Central Iowa Autism Society (ECIAS) has teamed up with the Eastern Iowa Swimming Federation to offer a pilot program for teaching basic safety swimming skills to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. This program will cover a series of swimming lessons, to help teach the child beginning level swimming skills, taught by a qualified swimming instructor on a 1:1 basis.
The skills taught to the swimmer will be bobbing, floating, jumping from the side of the pool, treading water, and other basic level instruction. Children that are beyond basic level swimming skills would not benefit from this program. Due to regulations, the child must be toilet trained and cannot wear swim diapers during the lesson.
Lessons: This program will GRANT up to a maximum of twenty-four (24), 30-minute lessons, Monday-Thursday, from 3:00pm – 3:30 pm, to be completed as follows:
Session 1: June 18th – June 21st, and June 25th – June 28th (8 lessons)
Session 2: July 9th – July 12th, and July 16th – July 19th (8 lessons)
Session 3: July 23rd – July 26th, and July 30th – August 2nd (8 lessons)
Registration will be open from April 15th-May 1st. Recipients of the grant will be emailed/called within 2 weeks after May 1st for confirmation of acceptance.
Please complete and email the application below to contact-us@ecias.org.
Register now for “A Developmental Framework for Evidence-Based Practices for the Autism Spectrum: Using the SCERTS Assessment to Identify Social and Emotional Priorities” with presenter Emily Rubin, April 25, 2018 at Grant Wood AEA. Rubin will share a review of the research in social neuroscience and how this helps us understand how children acquire the foundations of social and emotional competence before they are talking, at emerging language stages, and at the conversational level. Rubin will also share how neurodevelopmental differences need to be considered when implementing evidence-based practices and how the SCERTS assessment framework can be used to generate educational objectives that are predictive of developmental shifts toward social emotional competence. Registration information:https://buff.ly/2HUB7Ah
Providing evidence-based educational programming for children on the autism spectrum relies not only on selecting appropriate strategies, but also an understanding of neurodevelopment. What we determine as the child’s targeted educational objectives should be as important ashow we are providing accommodations.
The lecture will begin with a review of the research in social neuroscience and how this helps us understand how children acquire the foundations of social and emotional competence before they are talking, at emerging language stages, and at the conversational level. Participants will learn how neurodevelopmental differences need to be considered when implementing evidence-based practices and how the SCERTS assessment framework can be used to generate educational objectives that are predictive of developmental shifts toward social emotional competence.
TARGET AUDIENCE
PreK-12 Teachers, Consultants, OT/PT, Psychologists, Early Childhood, Speech Language Pathologists, Social Workers, Parents, Administrators, Counselors, Paraeducators, Special Education Teachers
INSTRUCTOR
Emily Rubin MS, CCC-SLP
REGISTRATION
Registration Deadline: 6:00 a.m. on April 18, 2018
April is Autism Acceptance Month! The Iowa City Autism Community works for autism acceptance and inclusion everyday. We are a volunteer-only group.
We have been organizing Autism-Friendly Swims at the University of Iowa Campus Recreation and Wellness Center’s Leisure Pool for the past several months. They are, by far, our most popular events. Not only is the pool a lot of fun, but they also have family locker rooms, which is critical to making swimming pools accessible to families who cannot use uni-gender locker rooms together.
The only problem is they cost about $190 each time, so we are completely dependent on donations to make this accessible to families for FREE.
Donations to this gofundme campaign will be used to sponsor more FREE swimming events for families with autistic members.
Click HERE to support.
Checks may also be made out to The Iowa City Autism Community. Contact us at icautismcommunity@gmail.com to set up your donation.
THANK YOU for your support of the Iowa City Autism Community!
Adults on the autism spectrum are invited to come and volunteer at the Harvest Preserve Foundation in their annual Garlic Mustard Pull! Come do something good for the earth while meeting and making new friends. There are no expectations for participation – come as you are! Meet in the parking lot and look for Leah Donald- she will be holding a sign with her name on it. The entrance to the Preserve is directly across the street from the barn on Scott. The only tools that are needed are hands! Gloves are optional.
Learn more about Harvest Preserve Foundation on their website at http://www.harvestpreserve.org/
If you need any additional accommodations, please email Jessie Witherell at icautismcommunity@gmail.com
This social group is facilitated by Access2Independence and The Iowa City Autism Community
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Therapeutic riding classes focus on building strength and confidence for riders with social, motor, or other developmental challenges. On a horse, these children feel like “everyone else” and develop their skills at a remarkable rate that carries over to other improvements in day-to-day life.
More from Miracles in Motion, including classes for 2018 can be found here.
The ICAC Adult Social Group scheduled for March has been cancelled. The next meeting will be on April 8th.
