Dear Friends,
Shouldn’t Playgrounds Be For Everyone?
We have great news about our Universally Accessible playground
project being built at Nassau County’s Eisenhower Park!
We cordially invite you to join us at our official groundbreaking on
October 9, 2009 at Eisenhower Park, East Meadow, NY at 10:30 am.
(adjacent to parking lot #4)
Warmly,
David Weingarten
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Important Survey
The New York State Interagency Task Force on Autism is seeking input on the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families. As a member of the Task Force, the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities encourages individuals with ASD, parents, other family members, non-profit providers, professionals, advocates, and other interested parties to complete the survey. This brief online survey seeks your opinions regarding which services are most important for meeting the needs of individuals with ASD and their families and which activities related to autism New York State should make a priority.
You may access the survey at
https://app.expressemailmarketing.com/takesurvey.aspx?id=16666
The due date for surveys is October 9, 2009.
You may access the survey at
https://app.expressemailmarketing.com/takesurvey.aspx?id=16666
The due date for surveys is October 9, 2009.
Monday, September 21, 2009
An open letter to the Jewish community from a 16-year-old who has Aspergers.
An open letter to the Jewish community from a 16-year-old who has Aspergers.
by Nathan Weissler
I am a 16-year-old with Asperger Syndrome (AS), a complex of autistic spectrum disorders living in Chevy Chase, Maryland in the United States. The most rewarding aspect of having AS is the strong sense of morality and honesty that is part of the deal, so to speak. However, on the negative side, the most frustrating aspect is the sense of social isolation that comes along with it. The community has supported me a great deal. However, there is a lot more that must and can be done.
For instance, the community should overall be more trusting of those with disabilities. For instance, it is wrong to assume that someone on the autism spectrum (or with any disability) cannot do anything simply because of the way God made them. Delving a bit more “beneath the iceberg” it is wrong to let buried prejudices and biases lead you to the conclusion that a Special Needs individual is incapable simply because he\she has Special Needs. In other words, the concept of b’tzelem elokhim (“All people are created in the image of God”), which is central to Jewish thought, is a vital outlet for Special Needs individuals.
This is the biggest mistake people have made in treating me and many others like me. Everyone can improve on this point: parents, teachers, even other kids.
On the positive side, however, many different people have made me feel trusted. For instance, my parents permit me to take long-distance train and bus trips alone to visit family. At my shul I have been permitted me to teach classes; give Divrei Torah etc.
Finally, three changes within the community I would like to see include:
1. Making a greater effort to include kids\ teens with Special Needs whenever possible.
2. Never assume that kids\teens can’t participate in a certain activity simply because they have Special Needs. If you are truly concerned about their ability to handle a certain situation, talk to them privately so as not to embarrass them.
3. Lastly and most importantly -- take kids\teens with AS and other Special Needs seriously. Listen to them. This will go a long way towards improving things for everyone!
Of course, it is not really so simple that these changes alone will improve everything for Special Needs individuals. But this is an extraordinary start! We must take these and similar approaches in improving life for Special Needs individuals and in our long-term struggle for B’tzelem Elokhim and Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World).
Published: Monday, September 21, 2009
by Nathan Weissler
I am a 16-year-old with Asperger Syndrome (AS), a complex of autistic spectrum disorders living in Chevy Chase, Maryland in the United States. The most rewarding aspect of having AS is the strong sense of morality and honesty that is part of the deal, so to speak. However, on the negative side, the most frustrating aspect is the sense of social isolation that comes along with it. The community has supported me a great deal. However, there is a lot more that must and can be done.
For instance, the community should overall be more trusting of those with disabilities. For instance, it is wrong to assume that someone on the autism spectrum (or with any disability) cannot do anything simply because of the way God made them. Delving a bit more “beneath the iceberg” it is wrong to let buried prejudices and biases lead you to the conclusion that a Special Needs individual is incapable simply because he\she has Special Needs. In other words, the concept of b’tzelem elokhim (“All people are created in the image of God”), which is central to Jewish thought, is a vital outlet for Special Needs individuals.
This is the biggest mistake people have made in treating me and many others like me. Everyone can improve on this point: parents, teachers, even other kids.
On the positive side, however, many different people have made me feel trusted. For instance, my parents permit me to take long-distance train and bus trips alone to visit family. At my shul I have been permitted me to teach classes; give Divrei Torah etc.
Finally, three changes within the community I would like to see include:
1. Making a greater effort to include kids\ teens with Special Needs whenever possible.
2. Never assume that kids\teens can’t participate in a certain activity simply because they have Special Needs. If you are truly concerned about their ability to handle a certain situation, talk to them privately so as not to embarrass them.
3. Lastly and most importantly -- take kids\teens with AS and other Special Needs seriously. Listen to them. This will go a long way towards improving things for everyone!
Of course, it is not really so simple that these changes alone will improve everything for Special Needs individuals. But this is an extraordinary start! We must take these and similar approaches in improving life for Special Needs individuals and in our long-term struggle for B’tzelem Elokhim and Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World).
Published: Monday, September 21, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
KULANU CATCHES A WAVE WITH SURFER'S HEALING
On Wednesday, September 16th, children and teens with special needs from Kulanu’s recreational program traveled to Long Beach for a unique and exhilarating experience with Surfer’s Healing. Surfer’s Healing enriches the lives of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their families by exposing them to the unique experience of surfing. Surfer’s Healing turns the ocean surf into apositive and therapeutic activity for these children. In our work with children with special needs, Kulanu joins with many new and innovative programs to provide activities that are inclusive, social, and fun for children and their families. For more information about this and other Kulanu programs, contact Leiby Brill at 516 569-6664 ext.138.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Long Island Family Support Consumer Council presents Seventeenth Annual Legislative Breakfast
The Long Island Family Support Consumer Council
in collaboration with
The Long Island Developmental Disabilities Service Office
presents its
Seventeenth Annual Legislative Breakfast
Friday, October 30, 2009
Hard Times – Hard Choices
Featured Speakers
Assemblyman James D. Conte
New York State 10th Assembly District
Diana Jones Ritter
Commissioner, Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities
Sign in and networking - 8:30 am. Program begins - 9:30 am.
Long Island Hilton Hotel, 598 Broadhollow Rd (Route 110), Melville, NY
The Legislative Breakfast provides an opportunity to inform legislators about the needs and accomplishments of our family members with a disability.
Consumers, parents and other family members of people with developmental disabilities
are invited without charge.
PRE-REGISTRATION is required and must be received no later than 10/19/09.
You may register online at www.lifscc.com or e-mail the first and last name of all
attending to lifscc@yahoo.com or mail completed form to the address below.
If you have any questions regarding registration, call LIFSCC at 631 434-6073.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Consumers, Parents Family & Members Registration Form.
17th Annual Legislative Breakfast, Friday, October 30, 2009
Names
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Mail to: LIFSCC c/o Cathy Aziz, 2475 Lefferts Place, Bellmore, NY 11710
in collaboration with
The Long Island Developmental Disabilities Service Office
presents its
Seventeenth Annual Legislative Breakfast
Friday, October 30, 2009
Hard Times – Hard Choices
Featured Speakers
Assemblyman James D. Conte
New York State 10th Assembly District
Diana Jones Ritter
Commissioner, Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities
Sign in and networking - 8:30 am. Program begins - 9:30 am.
Long Island Hilton Hotel, 598 Broadhollow Rd (Route 110), Melville, NY
The Legislative Breakfast provides an opportunity to inform legislators about the needs and accomplishments of our family members with a disability.
Consumers, parents and other family members of people with developmental disabilities
are invited without charge.
PRE-REGISTRATION is required and must be received no later than 10/19/09.
You may register online at www.lifscc.com or e-mail the first and last name of all
attending to lifscc@yahoo.com or mail completed form to the address below.
If you have any questions regarding registration, call LIFSCC at 631 434-6073.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Consumers, Parents Family & Members Registration Form.
17th Annual Legislative Breakfast, Friday, October 30, 2009
Names
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Mail to: LIFSCC c/o Cathy Aziz, 2475 Lefferts Place, Bellmore, NY 11710
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Adult Transition Program...accepting applicants!
New York and Connecticut residents, please note this special opportunity to have access to the Stamford Campus of the University of Connecticut.Contact: Dr. Sue IzemanAdmissions/Informationchapelhaven@abilis.us(203) 629-1880, ext. 304NEW TRANSITION PROGRAM TAKES YOUNG ADULTS FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO REAL WORLDChapel Haven Abilis , a transition to independent living day program for young adults with autism and related disorders, is scheduled to open in January 2010 on the UConn/Stamford campus. The program is a collaboration between Abilis, lower Fairfield County's nonprofit service provider for children and adults with developmental disabilities, and Chapel Haven of New Haven, a nationally recognized provider of transition programs. Both agencies are well respected for providing high-quality services for children and adults in Connecticut. Program Overview Chapel Haven Abilis will serve young adults age 18 to 24 who are on the Autism Spectrum or have a related disorder. This unique initiative unites the strengths and experience of each agency to help students on the Autism Spectrum and with related disorders reach their highest level of independence and optimize opportunities for employment. The Chapel Haven Abilis program is built around a social-communicative core. The program will focus on education, career exploration, independent living skills, community access and recreation. The University of Connecticut campus in downtown Stamford will be the main site for the program, with access to classrooms, media center, fitness center, café and other areas. Community-based experiences will be an integral part of the program. The campus is within walking distance of a variety of community options, such as the Ferguson Library, large retail outlets, movie theaters, restaurants and recreational facilities. Chapel Haven Abilis will be a year-round, five-day program but can be tailored to meet individual needs. Abilis may be a resource for families needing assistance with residential options. The curriculum is built around a two-year time frame, with an optional third year as needed to enhance independence for each student. Using the Chapel Haven curriculum, the first year emphasizes functional academics, vocational skills and community independence. The second year provides opportunities for the student to increase his or her independence and to begin application of vocational skills in real-world work environments. Admission to Chapel Haven Abilis begins with a phone call to Dr. Susan Izeman, director of the Abilis Autism Program. After the initial contact, application materials will be sent to the student and family. Dr. Izeman and Chapel Haven's VP of Admissions will review intake materials, including current IEPs, psychological and educational evaluations, functional adaptive assessments and vocational assessments. Next, prospective students and their parents will be invited for an interview and campus tour. Admission is based on the applicant's skills and interest to participate in the program. Chapel Haven Abilis will successfully serve young adults with:· A diagnosis of Autism, ASD, PDD or a related language or social disability;· Intellectual functioning in the mild to low average range;· No serious behavioral or mental health concerns;· An ability to work in small- to medium-sized groups with minimal assistance; and · A motivation for increased independence. For more information about Chapel Haven Abilis or to begin the application process, please contact: Susan Izeman, PhD, BCBA, Director, Chapel Haven Abilis Phone: 203-629-1880, x304Email: chapelhaven@abilis.us About Chapel Haven: Based in New Haven, Conn., Chapel Haven, Inc. has been a leader in transition programming since 1972. Chapel Haven has maintained a strong local and national reputation for successfully teaching adults with cognitive disabilities to live independently in the community. Chapel Haven has strategically aligned itself with internationally recognized experts in the field of Autism Spectrum Disorders, creating a unique curriculum specifically to meet the needs of this population. About Abilis: Since 1951, Abilis has set the standard in Fairfield County for person-centered, community-based supports and services for individuals with developmental disabilities. Abilis has developed strong relationships with area school districts, community agencies and families throughout Fairfield County. In 2000, Abilis created the Abilis Autism Program in response to increasing needs of children and teens on the Autism Spectrum and their families.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger’s
PARALLEL PLAY
Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger’s
By Tim Page
Illustrated. 197 pages. Doubleday. $26.
Related
‘Parallel Play’ (September 3, 2009)
The first prediction came true, and then some: Mr. Page won a Pulitzer Prize for his music criticism at The Washington Post (he was also a critic at The New York Times). He has written such a superbly incisive biography of the once-forgotten novelist Dawn Powell that she is now well remembered, and edited volumes of Powell’s diaries and letters. Now, in his mid-50s, he has written an improbably lovely memoir about the loneliness that has made him feel throughout his life that he is “not quite a mammal.”
“In the years since the phrase became a cliché, I have received any number of compliments for my supposed ability to ‘think outside the box,’ ” Mr. Page writes in “Parallel Play” (an expanded version of material published in The New Yorker). But for him thinking inside the box is at best a mechanical exercise based on mimicry; at worst it’s an impossibility.
In fascinatingly precise detail and often to pricelessly funny effect, he describes ways in which his efforts to feign normalcy have backfired. Recalling an adolescent clinch with a young woman who asked if he’d still care about her the next day, he says he pondered the question, then told her truthfully that he had no idea. “Wrong answer,” he wryly recalls.
When he was 45, Mr. Page learned that he had the autistic disorder called Asperger’s syndrome. He was relieved to know that his condition was quantifiable and that others share the same general symptoms. But he was also much too smart and self-aware to feel true kinship with other Aspies, as he calls them.
“We are not always natural companions,” he writes. “If, say, you introduce an Aspie devotee of antique piano recordings to one whose passion is vacuum cleaners, chances are that the meeting will result in two uncomprehending and increasingly agitated monologues.”
As for his own social skills, he has been married twice and is the father of three sons. Yet he still writes that “it would be easier for me to improvise an epic poem before a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden than to approach an attractive stranger across the room and strike up a conversation.” About his professional abilities, he acknowledges that he was lucky to find work like teaching and writing music criticism. He would have fared horribly with a job in sales.
Mr. Page’s devotion to music first manifested itself when he was very young. He named a stuffed animal after the tenor and film actor Mario Lanza. (Among this book’s many pleasures are Mr. Page’s wildly eclectic tastes and his fondness for the endearingly second rate.)
He loved records. When given an elementary school assignment to “write about something we had at home,” he reeled off from memory the precise selections, composers, singers and dates of each band on an opera anthology ranging from 1909 to 1932. He also loved relics of bygone time, ingested horehound drops as snack food and was using the world “talkie” about movies in 1965.
Among Mr. Page’s extremely colorful examples of his obsessive, controlling boyhood behavior is his having gotten hold of — and then re-edited, following a scene-by-scene description of the original from a library book — an eight-millimeter print of the 12-minute silent film “The Great Train Robbery” because he knew that a distributor had tampered with the original. And there’s more: in 1967 he was directing his own films and became the subject of a prizewinning documentary called “A Day With Timmy Page.” Mr. Page’s wing-nut film fanaticism led him to discover Bob Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home” not for the obvious reasons but because Louella Parsons’s biography of Jean Harlow appears amid the coffee-table clutter on the album’s cover.
With seemingly effortless grace this book moves back and forth between Mr. Page’s very private idiosyncrasies and those of the wider culture in which he came of age. The fear and rigid conventionality of the 1950s were relatively easy for him. The ’60s took more effort, but he worked hard to adapt. He was sufficiently well assimilated to go with the flow, grow long hair and get a job in a record store, “where I became the very model of the snide know-it-all counterperson we have all met and loathed.”
“Parallel Play” is illustrated by a series of expertly chosen photos of the author that amount to a kind of time-lapse photography: from a little boy making an open-mouthed goldfish grimace (“Try as I might, I couldn’t remember how to smile”) to a beret-wearing, contented-looking, broadly smiling professor. He is on a park bench in Baltimore. Thanks to the candid, companionable voice of his memoir, the implied invitation to sit down and discuss, oh, maybe the later Beach Boys records (which he marvelously describes as “vaporous, ethereal, elaborately ornamented musical clockworks, distinguished by a blossoming tenderness and sheer sonic splendor”) is all but irresistible.
But there is also a strain of mournfulness running through this book. It’s not about Asperger’s, but it is intensified by the peculiar nature of Mr. Page’s Asperger-governed perceptions. Tirelessly logical, sometimes agonizingly so, he lives life in an extra dimension, with a sense of time that irrevocably links past and present, living and dead, ardent love affairs and broken ones.
The people who left him — and it seems to have happened a lot — are still with him. The schoolmate who died in his teens has become, in Mr. Page’s imagination, his aging contemporary. The music heard at a long-ago party is still playing. And the hardest job of Mr. Page’s life, as “Parallel Play” conveys even in its brightest moments, has been to struggle for a way to make peace with it all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/books/03maslin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=parelell%20play%20book%20review&st=cse
Growing Up With Undiagnosed Asperger’s
By Tim Page
Illustrated. 197 pages. Doubleday. $26.
Related
‘Parallel Play’ (September 3, 2009)
The first prediction came true, and then some: Mr. Page won a Pulitzer Prize for his music criticism at The Washington Post (he was also a critic at The New York Times). He has written such a superbly incisive biography of the once-forgotten novelist Dawn Powell that she is now well remembered, and edited volumes of Powell’s diaries and letters. Now, in his mid-50s, he has written an improbably lovely memoir about the loneliness that has made him feel throughout his life that he is “not quite a mammal.”
“In the years since the phrase became a cliché, I have received any number of compliments for my supposed ability to ‘think outside the box,’ ” Mr. Page writes in “Parallel Play” (an expanded version of material published in The New Yorker). But for him thinking inside the box is at best a mechanical exercise based on mimicry; at worst it’s an impossibility.
In fascinatingly precise detail and often to pricelessly funny effect, he describes ways in which his efforts to feign normalcy have backfired. Recalling an adolescent clinch with a young woman who asked if he’d still care about her the next day, he says he pondered the question, then told her truthfully that he had no idea. “Wrong answer,” he wryly recalls.
When he was 45, Mr. Page learned that he had the autistic disorder called Asperger’s syndrome. He was relieved to know that his condition was quantifiable and that others share the same general symptoms. But he was also much too smart and self-aware to feel true kinship with other Aspies, as he calls them.
“We are not always natural companions,” he writes. “If, say, you introduce an Aspie devotee of antique piano recordings to one whose passion is vacuum cleaners, chances are that the meeting will result in two uncomprehending and increasingly agitated monologues.”
As for his own social skills, he has been married twice and is the father of three sons. Yet he still writes that “it would be easier for me to improvise an epic poem before a sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden than to approach an attractive stranger across the room and strike up a conversation.” About his professional abilities, he acknowledges that he was lucky to find work like teaching and writing music criticism. He would have fared horribly with a job in sales.
Mr. Page’s devotion to music first manifested itself when he was very young. He named a stuffed animal after the tenor and film actor Mario Lanza. (Among this book’s many pleasures are Mr. Page’s wildly eclectic tastes and his fondness for the endearingly second rate.)
He loved records. When given an elementary school assignment to “write about something we had at home,” he reeled off from memory the precise selections, composers, singers and dates of each band on an opera anthology ranging from 1909 to 1932. He also loved relics of bygone time, ingested horehound drops as snack food and was using the world “talkie” about movies in 1965.
Among Mr. Page’s extremely colorful examples of his obsessive, controlling boyhood behavior is his having gotten hold of — and then re-edited, following a scene-by-scene description of the original from a library book — an eight-millimeter print of the 12-minute silent film “The Great Train Robbery” because he knew that a distributor had tampered with the original. And there’s more: in 1967 he was directing his own films and became the subject of a prizewinning documentary called “A Day With Timmy Page.” Mr. Page’s wing-nut film fanaticism led him to discover Bob Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home” not for the obvious reasons but because Louella Parsons’s biography of Jean Harlow appears amid the coffee-table clutter on the album’s cover.
With seemingly effortless grace this book moves back and forth between Mr. Page’s very private idiosyncrasies and those of the wider culture in which he came of age. The fear and rigid conventionality of the 1950s were relatively easy for him. The ’60s took more effort, but he worked hard to adapt. He was sufficiently well assimilated to go with the flow, grow long hair and get a job in a record store, “where I became the very model of the snide know-it-all counterperson we have all met and loathed.”
“Parallel Play” is illustrated by a series of expertly chosen photos of the author that amount to a kind of time-lapse photography: from a little boy making an open-mouthed goldfish grimace (“Try as I might, I couldn’t remember how to smile”) to a beret-wearing, contented-looking, broadly smiling professor. He is on a park bench in Baltimore. Thanks to the candid, companionable voice of his memoir, the implied invitation to sit down and discuss, oh, maybe the later Beach Boys records (which he marvelously describes as “vaporous, ethereal, elaborately ornamented musical clockworks, distinguished by a blossoming tenderness and sheer sonic splendor”) is all but irresistible.
But there is also a strain of mournfulness running through this book. It’s not about Asperger’s, but it is intensified by the peculiar nature of Mr. Page’s Asperger-governed perceptions. Tirelessly logical, sometimes agonizingly so, he lives life in an extra dimension, with a sense of time that irrevocably links past and present, living and dead, ardent love affairs and broken ones.
The people who left him — and it seems to have happened a lot — are still with him. The schoolmate who died in his teens has become, in Mr. Page’s imagination, his aging contemporary. The music heard at a long-ago party is still playing. And the hardest job of Mr. Page’s life, as “Parallel Play” conveys even in its brightest moments, has been to struggle for a way to make peace with it all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/books/03maslin.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=parelell%20play%20book%20review&st=cse
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