Autism links & Presentations

VSCA does not endorse any of these organizations in any way, implied or explicit; any descriptions appended to the links are explanatory in nature only.  These links are divided into different categories, some of the sites may be repeated when they fit more than one category. These categories will be continually refined, so if you find a link that you would like to see here or a broken link,  please email the  webmaster

The following three websites are by adults with autism. Each gives a personal story, including experiences and challenges such as going to school, childhood, and coping with sensory issues.

www.thomasamckean.com, web site of Thomas McKean, author of Soon Will Come the Light and autism advocate. Includes a journal, biography, and articles.

www.templegrandin.com Personal stories, autism information, and information on Temple Grandin’s published works.

http://users.telenet.be/neral/ A web site detailing the childhood and adult life of a Flemish man with autism (in English).

Education:

• Some great handbooks from Community Options for Children and Families, one for ‘Choosing a Caregiver’, one for School Planning (it’s AWESOME), and a Recreation Program guide

• British Columbia Special Education Association.  SEA is a provincial specialist association of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation. The goal of SEA is to promote awareness, acceptance, and personal excellence for students with special needs through communications with members in the educational field and in the community.  SEA deals with topics of particular interest to our members and to all teachers in the field of special education.  

• www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/index.html  Teachers helping teachers. Extensive Special Education section. Great site for families to understand special ed.  

• www.quasar.ualberta.ca/ddc/incl/b13.htm  Canadian website  - University of Alberta website.  Getting organized in special education, monitoring I.E.P.’s  (individual education plans)  

• www.seriweb.com/  SERI   Special Education Resources on Internet  Collection of internet information resources on Special Education. Comprehensive list of disability supports, resources.  

• www.inclusion.com  Inclusion Press International home page.  Based in Toronto.  Small independent publishers that produce resources about full inclusion in school, work and community.  Excellent website to help promote inclusion.  

• http://snow.utoronto.ca/kids/index.html?snowkids=1  SNOW   “ Special Needs Opportunity Windows “ University of Toronto;  Canadian content.  Online workshops, best practices, adaptive technology, resources for parents, links to websites for parents.  Kids empowerment zone with kid friendly resources, information on disabilities in “ their language “ and links to online communities for kids with special needs. Accessible online educational activities etc….  

• www.ualberta.ca/~jpdasddc/parents/  A Parent’s Place. Website maintained by J.P. Das Developmental Disabilities Centre in Edmonton, Alberta.  Ideas, information and support for parents of children with developmental disabilities.  

• www.teacch.com/teacch.htm  TEACCH  Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children Website maintained by University of North Carolina.  Information on Autism, education approaches, communication approaches from preschool to adult.  

• Autism Awareness Centre Inc.  

• Lion's Pride Gymnastics Academy.  Work on gross & fine motor skills with professional assistance.

• http://www.friend2friendsociety.org/other-info/resources.php

• www.do2learn.com

   

Autism Associations:

• Autism Society of British Columbia, Canada

• Autism Society of BC, Extended Autism Intervention Funding Site.  The Parent Information Kit contains helpful and important information for parent-run programs, including information on the selecting of service providers, and employer/employee relationships and responsibilities.  Selected parts of this material are available on our EAI page, under resources.

• Autism Society of Canada

• Autism Awareness Centre

• The Association in Manhattan for Autistic Children (AMAC)

• The World Autism Organization (WAO)

• Autism Awareness Campaign Sri Lanka International Appeal

Legal & Advocacy

• Richard Hudson 's Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Disability Rights, Dating, Friendship & Advocacy Home Page

• Victoria Association for Community Living

• Planned Lifetime Advocacy Networks help families to make long term arrangements for the care and support of disabled family members. 

• LifeTime Networks Victoria: helps families form lifetime supportive networks for their loved ones.  Also provides other supportive services in the community,  

• The BC Coalition of People with Disabilities is a provincial, cross-disability advocacy organization. 

• www.communityoptions.bc.ca 

• Advocacy links from a private web page in PEI.

• Philia - A Dialogue About Citizenship and Disabilities.

• “Avoiding Unfortunate Situations “  http://policeandautism.cjb.net/avoiding.html  Website written by a Law Enforcement officer – Dennis Debbaudt who has a son with Autism.  He frequently trains police officers and the FBI in understanding ASD and invisible disabilities.  Lots of excellent ideas for families and police/ first responders dealing with individuals with ASD.   

• The Federation of Invisible Disabilities believes that in order to reach their potential, children and youth with invisible disabilities have a right to be understood, accepted, accommodated and supported.  Located in Victoria.

Local Resource related

• Recreation Integration Victoria

• Autism Community Training-British Columbia  ACT is a registered not-for-profit society. In November 2004, they were successful in winning a provincial contract from the Ministry for Children and Family Development (MCFD) to provide information, training and vital support services to parents across British Columbia who have children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

• The Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders

• Centre for the Study of Autism

• Victoria Association for Community Living

• www.cw.bc.ca  Website containing B.C. Children’s Hospital Family Resource Library contents and catalogue. Collection of over 1,500 books, 500 videos, 300 files of pamphlets and brochures. Anyone in B.C. can borrow materials free of charge and mail them back in prepaid envelopes.  

• Autism Society of America

• Autism Victoria The Interagency Autism Steering Committee is comprised of families and professionals with a keen interest in the population of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

• The BC Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders

• The Geneva Centre for Autism (Toronto)

• Autism Treatment Services of Canada

• The BC Ministry of Children and Family Development website dedicated to autism intervention material.

• Interim Authority for Community Living British Columbia

• The BC Ministry of Education, Special Education Branch

• Parents' Guide to IEPs - BC Ministry of Education

• Planned Lifetime Advocacy Networks help families to make long term arrangements for the care and support of disabled family members. 

• SET-BC is a Ministry of Education Provincial Resource Program established to assist school districts in educating students whose access to the curriculum is restricted due to disabilities:

• http://autism.about.com/health/autism/  Comprehensive site with links to mental health resources, special education resources, disability issues, home schooling, parenting children with Autism Spectrum Disorders  

• Lion's Pride Gymnastics provides private & semi-private lessons for children with autism.  These lessons, recommended for some children by OT's & PT's, help to develop coordination and strength in a supportive and nurturing manner.  Clients also benefit from the positive social interactions with staff and typical students/peers, who provide encouragement and support during the sessions ("you've got to cheer it!").  

Diet related

• Autism Link Page (Diet)

• Nutrition clinic Biopterin (Finland)

• Autism Network for Dietary Intervention (ANDI)

• Secretin as an intervention for autism 7 Oct 1998 (page at Autism Research Unit website)

Research, Therapy, and Treatment Related:

• Autism/Pervasive Developmental Disorders Assessment and Intervention for Young Children (Age 0-3 Years) Report by New York State Early Intervention agency, Clinical Practice Guidelines.

• http://www.firstsigns.org/index.html

• Report of the US Surgeon General on Autism (Chapter 3 of the report on children's mental health).

• Intervention Strategies:  Serena Wieder, Ph.D.

•  Dr. Peter Szatmari's Autism Research Page

• Genes and Autism

• John Wills Lloyd. "Autism and Secretin"

• Pharmacology: Paediatric Pharmacology: Autism from Clinical Psychopharmacology Seminar, University of Iowa 1994-1995, The Virtual Hospital

• Dr. Jeanette Holden's home page

• Tony Attwood.  site is a guide for parents, professionals, people with Asperger's Syndrome, and their partners.

• Biological Basis of Autism: Science, Oct 5/01, Vol 294, pp 34-37 [subscription needed]

• Dr. Byrd's California study on autism increase

• Search for Autism's Roots: Nature, June 21/01, Vol 411, pp 882-84 [subscription needed]

• Mind-Steps - Learning Solutions to Brighten Your Child's Future

• TEACCH

  • Division TEACCH Home page.

• Son-Rise Program

  • Option Institute Web Site (Organization in Sheffield MA, for autistic and other special-needs children formed by Barry Neil Kaufman, author of "Son-Rise").

  • Kristal-nieuws (Netherlands)

• Facilitated Communication

  • The Facilitated Communication Institute's Page

  • DEAL

  • Vermont Facilitated Communication Network

  • John W. Jacobson, James A. Mulick & Allen A. Schwartz. "A History of Facilitated Communication: Science, Pseudoscience, and Antiscience". 

  • "Facilitated Communication: Opening the Doors of Communication For the Non-verbal" (Dawn Simonsen)

• Lovaas Method/Applied Behavioural Analysis/Behavioural Therapy/Discrete Trial Training (ABA; DTT)

  • The Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention (Los Angeles, Ca)

  • Institute for Child Development

  • Richard Saffron's ABA resources

  • The Cambridge Centre for Behavioural Studies A Maine Family's Early Intervention Program for Autism / PDD

  • The Centre for Early Education (Lovaas method, San Diego, Cal.)

  • A letter from Dr. Lovass posted on the FEAT website.

• Social Stories

  • Social Stories: Stephen Edelson

  • The Gray Center for Social Learning and Understanding:  a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and those who work alongside them to improve mutual understanding. We approach the social impairment in ASD as a shared impairment. We work to improve social understanding on both sides of the social equation, helping both persons with ASD and those who are considered to be 'normal' to be able to communicate. 

• Auditory Integration Training/Speech Language Pathologists

  • Tomatis Americas Network

  • Auditory Integration Training and The

  • The Hanen Centre (Speech Language Pathologists)

• Occupational Therapy

  • Amy and Miles' Homepage

• Special Education

  • The Provincial Outreach Program for Autism and Related Disorders

Various International Programs:

• National Service Dogs.  Profiled on W-5 and the print news media.  NSD trains highly acclaimed service dogs for children with autism.  They are worth investigating.

• The Miller Method

• A.C.A.P. (Oregon)

• Developmental Play Therapy from Dave Nelson's Autism Page

• The HANDLE Institute (Seattle)

• www.autism-society.org Autism Society of America    Family support , advocacy, public awareness and research surrounding Autism Spectrum Disorders.  

• Autism Services Association (Massachusetts)

• Florida's Centre for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD)

  • CARD at Florida Mental Health Institute (USF)

  • University of Florida Brain Institute (Gainesville)

• CSAAC (Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children, Rockville Maryland)

• New England Centre for Children

• Illinois Centre for Autism

• Kind Tree: Autism Services

• The InterACT Centre (UK)

• Heath Farm (residence and day care, UK)

• Spectrum

• Great Plains Laboratory

• www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/autism.cfm#aut14   National Institute of Health website with comprehensive Autism Spectrum Disorder information.  Offers support, family information, coping strategies, research findings etc…  

• www.maapservices.org/   The Autism Source – MAAP services inc. Global information and support networks for parents and professionals. Information on Autism Spectrum Disorders, PDD and Asperger's Syndrome.

•   www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/frame1.html  OASIS   Online Asperger's Syndrome Information and Support Extensive information on Asperger's Syndrome / High Functioning Autism.  

• The Autism Link Page (Netherlands)

• www.autismonline.org/  Linking parents to autism support, education, research and products in their own language. Available in 20 languages.  

• The Lions Society of British Columbia for Children with Disabilities

• Sensory Integration Disorders:   www.sensorycomfort.com/  www.and.ca/sympt.html   www.mindspring.com/%7emariep/si/sensory.integration.html  

Personal Pages & Misc:

• "Ooops...Wrong Planet! Syndrome"   A site profiling a family's journey through life with 3 members on the Autism Spectrum.  

• www.eparent.com/  Exceptional Parent magazine on line. Provides support, information, ideas, encouragement and outreach to families of children with disabilities.  

• www.fathersnetwork.org/  Support for fathers raising children with special health care needs and developmental disabilities.   Contains resources, articles by dads, links to other sites.  (also available in Espanol – Spanish )  

• www.wowusa.com  Winners on Wheels – WOW- geared to kids in wheelchairs, designed with bright colours and clip art showing children and teens with disabilities. Visitors to site can sign up for monthly newsletters, find online pen-pals with disabilities, post their stories and poetry.  There is also a parent only section.  

• www.aspennj.org/ Asperger Syndrome Education Network – New Jersey, USA based site.  Lots of good articles and resources.  

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