Links

Stanley Greenspan

http://www.stanleygreenspan.com/ Homepage for Dr. Greenspan. The site offers a short biography, contact information and a list of publications. The Appearances section is not updated as often as it should be.

Alternatives to Behaviorism  A 1998 article from the Autism National Committee which does an excellent job of explaining Dr. Greenspan's methods, including how and why they differ from the more common approaches to treating autism, Asperger's, and PDD.

The Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental Learning Disorders An organization founded by Stanley Greenspan which brings together experts from many fields whose work is relevant to developmentally disabled children. Consider attending their annual conference in November.

Autism and Developmental Disorders, A Developmental Approach This site is owned and maintained by David G. Nelson, therapist and parent of an autistic child. Atlanta, Georgia area parents should definitely check this one out.

Play-to-Learn California parents in the Redlands or Canyon Lake area who are looking for Floor Time-based intervention resources, this is the place for you! Play-to-Learn's director, Kelli Wilms, has put together a fine program that we highly recommend. Contact information for Play-to-Learn is easy to access on the site. 

Cheryl Baucum Cheryl is a Texas parent of an autistic child who uses the DIR (Floor Time) Model. She lectures frequently at autism and education-related conferences and seminars on the subject of Floor Time. Visit her site to read  about her son's program and to see a list of her upcoming speaking engagements.

Autism and other Developmental Disorders

For Parents By Parents  This Resource Guide was recently posted to the ICDL website and we're thrilled to see it. Don't miss it. "Veteran" parents should resist the temptation to bypass the Overview. 

The Unicorn Children's Foundation  This site by the UCF is one of our favorites. It does a much better job of answering the question "ok, my kid has a developmental problem. Now what?"  Much of its content comes from Dr. Stanley Greenspan. Try the Parent Roadmap section. 

The Explosive Child, by Ross Greene, Ph.D. This is the book that enabled us to handle most of Katie's more outrageous behavior during the first year of intervention. As her processing abilities improved, the need to make use of its strategies decreased as well. In the beginning, however, this was the way we got through the day.

John Wobus' Autism Resources If you're as frantic as we were in the beginning and want to find everything you possibly can about Autism, here is where we suggest you start. This site contains more Autism links than any we have ever seen. 

Asperger's Syndrome in our Family You probably won't find this one in anyone else's list of links, but it's a personal favorite of ours. The Jensen's little girl, Lezlie, is very much like our Katie except that she is two years older. Keeping up with Lezlie's progress has given us a good idea of what to expect next from our own daughter. Post your story on Darin's board, the AS Internet Support Network, or use it to contact other parents of Asperger's children.

Recommended Reading

Visit our companion site, Shopping on The Asperger's Express, where you'll find our choices in Books for Parents.

CIBRA (Children Injured by Restraint and Aversives)  is a fledgling organization in the first stages of development. Founded by families whose autistic children were severely traumatized in well known programs of discrete trial (ABA) and other various settings utilizing dangerous behavior modification techniques, we are an integral part of the fast growing civil rights movement in the autism community.

Hyperlexia 

http://www.hyperlexia.org/  The American Hyperlexia Association maintains this outstanding site. Discovering Katie's hyperlexia was a major breakthrough for us because it showed us in what direction we needed to look for the causes of her unusual and confusing behavior.

Helpful Technology

The Tomatis Method  A type of Auditory Integration Therapy. The Tomatis Method "builds strong listening skills through auditory stimulation, to improve learning and language abilities, communication, creativity, and social behavior." Also visit The Spectrum Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

The Interactive Metronome The Interactive Metronome "provides a new high tech means of systematically exercising a number of underlying central nervous system processing capacities involved in neural sequencing, motor regulation and the ability to focus and attend.  It is designed to complement and enhance existing interventions rather than replace them. It may be especially beneficial to children with ADD/ADHD, LD, CP and PDD." 

Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes Lindamood-Bell™ has "pioneered programs to develop the sensory cognitive processes that underlie reading, spelling, language comprehension, math, and visual motor skills. Our research-based programs are for individuals ranging from severely learning disabled to academically gifted–ages 5 years through adult."

FastForWord

An Introduction to Fast ForWord from Scientific Learning Corporation

Re-wiring your Gray Matter: A recent article in Newsweek Magazine describes how FastForWord improves communication skills.

Sensory Integration

SI Network  A nice site for parents. It gives some suggestions of things to do at home for children with sensory defensiveness.

A Set of SI Links Including Marie's SI Page (very practical) and a page on the Wilbarger Approach (brushing).

Dietary Interventions

Kirkman Labs Makers of Super Nu-Thera and other products.

Montessori

The American Montessori Society 

Montessori Connections

The International Montessori Index

Education and Law

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/index.html The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services is the means by which the federal government insures compliance by the states with IDEA. 

http://www.wrightslaw.com/ One of the best sites we've seen for advocates. It contains articles, newsletters and court decisions which may be useful in IEP disputes, mediation or due process hearings

http://specialeducation.org/  This site is definitely worth a visit by parents who are interested in sharpening their advocacy skills.

Of Special Interest to New Jersey Parents

Statewide Parent Advocacy Network SPAN is a Newark-based New Jersey organization whose mission is "to empower families and inform and involve professionals and other individuals interested in the healthy development and educational rights of children, to enable all children to become fully participating and contributing members of our communities and society.  SPAN’s principal commitment is to children with the greatest need due to disability, poverty, geographic location, discrimination based on race, sex, or language, or other special circumstances." 

COSAC If you live in New Jersey, The Center for Outreach and Services to the Autism Community, or COSAC, has a few things that may be useful to you. They can provide referrals to some types of services your child may need and they also can help you get everything to which your child is entitled written into your IEP.  Their view of autism in general, however, is radically different from ours and we find their glowing endorsements of behaviorally-based intervention programs inexcusable. Their parent training course is based on ABA, which we do not recommend as a general intervention method for Asperger's / High Functioning Autistic children (see "Alternatives to Behaviorism" by following the second link on this page). We recommend COSAC for help with IEP issues, since they are very familiar with NJ special education law. We do not recommend COSAC for questions involving treatment issues on any level. In December, 2000, COSAC lobbied the education committee of the New Jersey State Assembly in an effort to prevent passage of a bill that would ban the use of restraints and aversives (ammonia capsules, tabasco sauce, water sprays, spanking, etc) in NJ schools.

http://www.state.nj.us/education/ Home Page for the New Jersey Department of Education.