Kean University will host an interdisciplinary conference, entitled
Autism: Putting the Pieces Together: An Interdisciplinary Conference
for Teachers, Parents, and Professionals, on November 21, 2008.

www.kean.edu/autismconference

This regional conference will bring together families, teachers,
school administrators, speech-language pathologists, occupational
therapists, counselors, social workers, psychologists, community
organizations and others affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders. Family
members and professionals will have the opportunity to learn about the
local, regional and national resources available to those whose lives
ASD touches each day. Panelists also will discuss the latest
discipline-specific research, as well as the various strategies used
to cope with this disorder.

The conference will feature top research and medical experts on autism
from throughout the country. Keynote speakers include Dr. Jake
Greenspan, one of the co-directors of DIR Support Services in
Bethesda, Md. DIR Support Services is a child development center
specializing in the use of the DIR/Floortime model. Jake and his DIR
co-director Tim Bleeker, with the help of Dr. Stanley Greenspan,
developed evaluation and intervention programs based on all aspects of
the DIR model. Their goal has been to develop and implement these
intervention programs for children with a variety of developmental and
learning challenges.

The conference lunchtime speaker is Jim Watkins, who co-anchors the
Emmy Award-winning CW11 News at 10. Each weeknight, Watkins teams with
co-anchor Kaity Tong, weatherman Irv "Mr. G" Gikofsky, and
sportscaster Sal Marchiano. Jim and his wife Lauren Thierry, a CNN
financial news reporter, are the parents of an autistic child who was
born in 1997. Lauren made a much-praised documentary, Autism Every
Day, which premiered to a sold-out audience at the Sundance Film
Festival in Park City, Utah.