REACH Parent Network Information Exchange.

This information exchange, sponsored by Reach, is by parents for parents.  It's content is  guided by Reach's mission to provide choices for families,  be family centered, facilitate inclusion, and  exist as a quality resource.  The information is meant to meet the needs of a multitude of families' interests.  We caution readers that Reach does not investigate all claims, and that claims  made  are not necessarily endorsed or recommended by Reach. Readers are encouraged to undertake further investigation on their own of items noted. 

• Autism Explained for Kids. Here's a great resource to help your children understand autism. Click here to see the video
   
• Why Can't the World See Autism as a Positive?

  Autism is usually not seen as a good thing in this world.

  But did you know Israeli army recruits people with autism to do specific jobs, such as find details in maps? I have autism and am proud. I'm not saying there aren't those tough days where I just want to say, "Why me, God?" but I have a purpose on this planet and have autism for a reason. I see the world differently. Click here to read more
   
• Autistic People: Persons or Projects? by Judy Endow.Autistic people experience the world differently than non-autistic people experience the world. One reasons for this difference is the autistic sensory system is quite different from the neuro-majority, which is considered the norm. In addition, the autistic thinking style has differences from the neuro-majority norm.Click here to read more  

• Benjamin, Boy on the Autism Spectrum, Writes Poem Called 'I Am'.  On Sunday, the National Autism Association shared a poem from a 10-year-old named Benjamin, who's on the autism spectrum. His mom sent in the poem, titled 'I Am,' saying "he was given the first 2 words of every sentence. This is what he wrote..." Click here to read more
   
   
• TED TALKS Autism Series: The autism spectrum. Explore the science of autism -- and listen to the stories of people who live with it.Click here to see these Ted Talks.
   
   
• Forget counting steps: Reveal fitness tracker records stressors for autistic kids.  

  Fitness trackers are great, but their applications could go far beyond simply tracking how many steps you take. For example, they could be used to seriously help people who need it - like children with autism. That's the idea behind a new health tracker from a company called Awake Labs, which has just launched an Indiegogo campaign for the Reveal 

  - a fitness tracker that's aimed squarely at helping kids on the autism spectrum. Click here to read more 

  
   
• Canadian Autism Partnership Project Survey.  

  This project, under the direction of a National ASD Working Group, is exploring a pan-Canadian partnership dedicated to accelerating and improving the use of research, effective practices, and technology by establishing and supporting collaborative networks for change. It will be a reliable source of new information that promotes evidence-based decision-making in solving complex issues facing Canadians living with ASD. CAPP is currently in the process of garnering feedback and insight from people across the country via a national online survey. We are hoping you can help.  Would you please take a few minutes and complete this survey? Your unique perspective can add to the national dialogue about how to make systemic changes and address barriers faced by Canadians living with ASD
  . Click here for the short survey

•  Click here for the new edition of the Autism File Magazine
  
  
   
   
   

   Down Syndrome  

• New Show Will Put Spotlight on People With Down Syndrome. A new television show is putting people with Down syndrome front and center. A new television show is putting people with Down syndrome front and center. A&E Networks recently announced it will be airing "Born This Way," a new six-episode documentary series this December about young adults with Down syndrome. Each hour-long episode will feature seven people from Southern California as they pursue career goals and romantic relationships, form friendships, overcome obstacles and make their way in the world. The show will also allow the families of the individuals a voice as they weigh in on the joys and challenges their family members with Down syndrome face.  Click here for more information

• You are Invited to a Delta Down Syndrome Support Group meeting: OUR GOALS ARE
  
  · To provide guest speakers (Reach therapists, community
  professionals and other programs) to discuss common issues
  · To provide support and information to families in Delta who
  have a child with Down Syndrome
  · To help connect parents of children with Down Syndrome
  · To provide monthly meetings for parents and their children
  · To provide on-site child minding while you attend the
  discussion
  When: First Thursday of each month
  Where:
  Reach Developmental Preschool South #3-3800 72nd Street, Delta, BC
  Reach Developmental Preschool North Delta 10921 - 82nd Avenue, Delta, BC
  
  **alternating each month
  • Time: 6:00pm - 7:30pm
    Cost: No charge
    Light refreshments provided
    Please RSVP to Sarah Garnham at 604-946-6622 extension 321.
    or email here 

Medical and Mental Health

• Click here for the Kelty Mental Health News 

• Mind Matters e-newsletter provides new resources and programs offered by Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) BC Division and is committed to the mental health of British Columbians. Click here for their current newsletter   

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Workshops and Training 

•  Click here for the CCRR Spring Summer Course Schedules 

•  Click here for a series of presentations by the Plan Institute 
• Facing the Future
• Wills, Trusts and Estates,
• RDSP
• Connecting to Community
   
   
• Facing the Future Together: A Succession Planning Workshop. 2016 Dates:
  

  • October 15 (10am-3pm)

  Facing the future with promise and confidence takes planning and requires all those who care for and support your relative with a disability to work together.

  This full-day workshop is designed to inform and assist all members of the family and their successors to:

  • Address concerns about the future and secure a succession plan
  • Hear how other families are creating peace of mind
  • Consider how to share roles and responsibilities
  • Identify key resources
  • Balance wishes and obligations

  Identify short and long term actionsClick here for more information and to register 

• Introduction to ASD - Practical Applications - POPARD - July 2016. This 30 hour course reflects current research and evidence-based practice in teaching students with ASD. Instruction includes pre-readings, practical hands-on training through instructor demonstration and coaching. In addition, course participants complete applied exercises in the key elements of teaching and supporting students with ASD.The course structure involves pre-readings and class discussions, in addition to ongoing opportunities for the participant to apply concepts through active participation.This course is a requirement for teaching assistants in many school districts and is open to community professionals and parents. Click here for more information
   
• Two Days of Social Thinking® (Vancouver)Thursday & Friday, August 4 & 5, 2016

  Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP Pamela Crooke, PhD, CCC-SLP.Social Thinking conferences are dedicated to providing practical information about school-age students and adults who have social and communication difficulties, including but not limited to those related to high-functioning autism spectrum disorders, PDD-NOS, Asperger Syndrome, NLD, ADHD, twice exceptional, murky undiagnosed challenges, etc. Information presented concentrates on students with near average to far above average verbal intelligence (verbal IQs above 70). Most strategies focus on school-age children and adults, although the information is helpful for those living and working with younger children.Click here for more information 

   
• DIRFloortime® DIR 101: Overview of the DIR® Model and Floortime™ Intervention:Theoretical Framework, Scientific Evidence, and Scope of Application With Paula Jurczak And Keith Landherr. This is an introductory course that reviews the theoretical framework, scientific evidence, and scope of application of the DIR model promoting functional emotional developmental capacities, reflective thinking, and overall mental health for all children and adults, including those with special needs. This is an ICDL approved introductory training. Following this course, participants may enroll in DIR 201 through ICDL.com. August 12 and 13, 2016 Questions ???  Contact Keith Landherr
  Phone # 604-299-8862 or email:here
   
• Introduction to ASD - Practical Applications - POPARD
  Monday - Friday, August 15 - 19, 2016 Kenneth Cole, PhD, RPsych Surrey School District Education Centre Surrey, BC.

  This 30 hour course has recently been revised to reflect current research and evidence-based practice in teaching students with ASD. Instruction includes pre-readings, practical hands-on training through instructor demonstration and coaching. In addition, course participants complete applied exercises in the key elements of teaching and supporting students with ASD.

  The course structure involves pre-readings and class discussions, in addition to ongoing opportunities for the participant to apply concepts through active participation.

  This course is a requirement for teaching assistants in many school districts and is open to community professionals and parents.Click here for more information 
   
• Creating the Future - Partnerships for Inclusive Learning Save the Date:  August 22-24, 2016 at UBC in Vancouver, BC. Facilitating strategic approaches to inclusion
  & belonging for all students Registration now open! Cllck here for more information

• Cutting Edge Strategies to Improve Executive Function Skills.

  Thursday & Friday, September 15 & 16, 2016

  Sarah Ward, MS, CCC-SLP Co-Director, Cognitive Connections LLP. These two days will provide you with dozens of practical strategies that you can implement tomorrow. You will learn about task initiation and execution to time management, practice using strategies such as 'Future Sketch', 'Get Ready, Do, Done', 'STOP and Read the Room', and seeing and sensing the passage of time. Through demonstration and practice, you will learn how to teach students the following executive control skills: awareness; forethought; waiting, planning skills; shifting; pacing; flexibility; speed of information processing.
   
• Family Focus Conference, October 21-23, 2016.  The Value of One; The Power of Many 

  October 21-23, 2016 Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel Richmond BC

  Click here for more information - Registration now open!

• Trauma-Informed Practices: School, Home, Treatment, and Community
  October 21, 2016 La Perla Ballroom , New Westminster, BC #230 - 810 Quayside Drive, New Westminster, BC. The Children's Foundation (TCF) is pleased to be hosting David Melnick on trauma. On October 21st, David will focus on using the lens of the "Seven Domains of Impact" examine the ways in which youth are impacted by trauma, and the relational, strategic, self, and collaborative practices to address areas of need.
  Traumatic events happen to all people at all ages and across all socio-economic strata in our society. These events can cause terror, intense fear, horror, helplessness and physical stress reactions. Some traumatic events are profound experiences that can change the way children, adolescents and adults see themselves and the world. Click here for more information and to register
   
• Earlybird Registration NOW. Victoria, BC - November 4 & 5, 2016. Featuring Speakers Leah Kuypers and Elizabeth Sautter  Friday, November 4 Leah Kuypers The Zones of Regulation This presentation provides teachers, therapists and parents with hands-on knowledge on the nature of self-regulation and strategies for improving self regulation and emotional control in individuals of all ages. Audience participants will learn an explicit, stair-stepped method and tools to guide individuals in utilizing The Zones framework across situations and environments to regulate sensory needs, impulses, and emotional states to social demands.  The Zones of Regulation presentation also incorporates core concepts from Michelle Garcia Winner's SocialThinking® framework to help teach individuals about perspective taking so they better understand how being in the different zones impacts thethoughts and feelings of other people around them.November 5 Elizabeth Sautter Make Social Learning Stick: Practical Tools to Build Social Regulation. Social Regulation (Kuypers and Sautter, 2011) is the ability to adjust one's level of alertness and modify how emotions and behaviors are revealed in order to meet social goals. This presentation will offer parents/caregivers, educators, and other professionals who work with individuals with social cognitive, executive functioning, communication &emotional regulation challenges, the glue that makes social learning stick.The majority of the presentation will focus on practical tools, concepts and suggestions that can easily be used the next day to support social regulation at home, school, work and in the community. Participants will learn to embrace teachable moments using new strategies as well existing ones in order to create a "social learning diet" for success.  Click here for more information and to register 

• Save the Date! We're excited to announce that the 20th annual Children the Heart of the Matter conference will be held on February 17 & 18, 2017 at the Sheraton Guildford Hotel in Surrey.
• Children the Heart of the Matter Conference Committee is seeking proposals for our
  20th annual conference. Our 201 6 conference drew over 600 participants and was an overwhelming success. Consideration will be given to those presenters whose proposals reflect diversity, inclusive practice, programming and curriculum for any or all of the following: infant/toddler, preschool-age and school- age children as well as children with special needs.

  Click here for more information

• The 7th International Conference on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
  Research: Results and Relevance 2017 Integrating Research, Policy and Promising Practice Around the World Conference Updates:
  Call for abstracts just announced. Click here for more information. Deadline for all submissions are August 26, 2016.
  Conference Dates: March 1-4, 2017 Conference Location: The Westin Bayshore, Vancouver, BC
  This advanced level conference continues to bring together experts from multiple disciplines to share international research. From the pure science, to prevention, diagnosis and intervention across the lifespan, the conference will address the implications of this research and promote scientific/community collaboration. It provides an opportunity to enhance understanding of the relationships between knowledge and research and critical actions related to FASD. First held in 1987, the conference brings together people passionate about this work in a stimulating environment where they can learn and forge new partnerships.Click here to stay in tune 
  
   

Other

• You are invited to be a FRIEND TO PLAN. As parents and caregivers, we all want the best for our family's future. But securing tomorrow requires careful planning today. PLAN believes caring relationships and a comprehensive plan are crucial parts of living a good life. Since being founded in 1989, we've been collaborating with families to help them secure an inclusive, safe and secure future for their relatives with a disability.
  Recently, families have requested other ways to collaborate with us. That's why we're pleased to introduce a new program called Friends of PLAN.
  For an investment of only $240 per year, Friends of PLAN will receive:  
  ·      An annual check-in with our Future Planning Consultant
  ·      Discounts on courses and workshops from Plan Institute
  ·      Invitations to monthly gatherings with Family Experts
  ·      A subscription to our quarterly newsletter
  ·      Invitations to member-only social events
  ·      Ongoing support from our Toll-Free Helpline
  Please consider this your invitation to become a Friend of PLAN. Click here for more information

• Do you have positive stories about employment? We are launching a familyWORKs social media campaign to reach new families through Facebook and Instagram by publishing positive and inspirational stories of real individuals participating in employed roles. 
  The campaign will be modeled after the very successful Instagram and blog, Humans of New York, which features authentic stories of citizens in New York and around the world (often receiving hundreds of thousands of "likes" and comments per posting). We are confident that through social media, FSI will be able to connect with families who are not aware of the possabilites of employment for people with diverse abilities. Contact Daniele by email here 

• FREE Car Seat Clinic June 22 Cancelled

• Complex Child June Editon - PLAY - please click here 

• 2016 Alaska Mission Possible Cruise  Madeline Stuart, Barbara Laird and Cyndi Gerlach
  It's no surprise that Celebrity guests and the travel press, including Conde Nast Traveler, consistently rate Celebrity Cruises as one of the world's finest cruise lines. Celebrity fulfills your clients dreams of remarkable, memorable vacations.
  July 10, 2016 Click here for more information

• The Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)

  is a long-term savings plan to help Canadians with disabilities and their families save for the future. Click here for more information

  If you have an RDSP, you may also be eligible for grants and bonds to help with your long-term savings.
  You should consider opening an RDSP if you have a long-term disability and are:
  • eligible for the Disability Tax Credit (disability amount);
  • under the age of 60 (if you are 59, you must apply before the end of the calendar year in which you turned 59);
  • a Canadian resident with a Social Insurance Number (SIN); and
  • looking for a long-term savings plan.
  You may contribute any amount to your RDSP each year, up to the lifetime contribution limit of $200,000. With written permission from the RDSP holder, anyone may contribute to the RDSP. Please click here for more information 
• PLAN (Planned lifetime advocacy network)  offers a variety of workshops regarding RDSP's, wills and estates and setting up personal networks.
• Click here for your comprehensive guide 

• Your One Stop Shop for children and families in Delta - click here

Submissions or Questions?

To submit for our newsletter or have a question for Pam to research please contact her at

Parent Network 

or 604-946-6622 ext 359.  

You can sign up at the Reach Child and Youth Development Society website to receive this newsletter directly.

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