----- Original Message -----

From: Adam Feinstein

To: abmd@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 11:27 AM

Subject: [ocd] Stephen Wiltshire, world famous autistic savant artist, is online today

Hello,

Just to let you know that you can now view all the papers at Awares' free international online autism conference, to give you time to read them before the more than 60 top world autism experts come on line to answer your questions when the conference opens officially later today, October 4. You can register for free right now at www.autism2006.org 

I am very excited to say that, among the participants who will be online to take your questions later today is Stephen Wiltshire, the world's most famous autistic savant artist. Stephen will be online on October 4, 6 and 11. Don't miss this rare opportunity to put questions to an exceptional autistic talent. Stephen can look at a target once and tthen draw a very accurate and very detailed picture of it from memory. He once drew the whole of central London after a helicopter trip above it. Since 2004 he has drawn Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rome and Frankfurt on giant panoramic canvasses entirely from memory. The writer and psychologist, Oliver Sacks, devoted an essay to Stephen in his book, An Anthropologist on Mars.

Stephen joins more than 60 of the world's leading experts taking part in the Awares online conference from October 4-11, 2006. Entry to the conference is totally free and open to everyone. You can register right now at www.autism2006.org where you will find the abstracts of almost all the experts' papers and you can exchange views with other delegates.

The conference is organised by Autism Cymru, Wales's National Charity for Autism.

This is the largest such conference ever to be held. The conference opens officially on October 4 and lasts for at least a week - but I will almost certainly extend the event, as I did twice last year because it proved so enormously popular (with more than 10,000 people joining in the discussions).

Another late addition to the list of speakers this year is Professor Anthony Monaco, from Oxford, UK, one of the world's leading authorities on the genetics of autism

 

Other speakers this year include:

 

*   Donna Williams and Wendy Lawson, two of the world's best-known autistic writers and speakers
*   Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor Laurent Mottron, Professor Margot Prior, Professor Jill Boucher, Professor Isabelle

     Rapin, Professor Robert DeLong and Professor Helen Tager-Flusberg, seven of the world's most outstanding autism experts
*   Chris and Gisela Slater-Walker (a married couple who provide two brilliant papers on living with Chris's Asperger's syndrome);
*   Dr Darold Treffert and Dr Richard Becker, the world's two leading authorities on autistic savants
*   Larry Arnold and Danny Beath, two British photographers with Asperger's syndrome
*   Paul Shattock and Dr Karl Reichelt, two of the world's foremost experts on autism and diet
*   Stephen Shore, a well-known speaker with autism
*   Dr Karen Pierce and Dr Manuel Casanova, two leading authorities on neurological aspects of autism

*   Dennis Debbaudt, the world's top expert on training the emergency services to recognise and understand autism
*   Jacqui Jackson, mother of seven children (including four on the autistic spectrum) and her son, Luke, a well-known author and

     speaker with Asperger's syndrome

*   Merry Barua (India), director of Action for Autism, the primary organisation in South Asia specialising in autistic spectrum disorders

     and related pervasive developmental disabilities

*   Dr Dinah Murray (UK), a worker, researcher, writer, campaigner and teacher in the field of autism and its variants
*   Dr Ulla Holck (Denmark) and Dorita Berger (USA), two of the world's most important specialists in music therapy for autism
*   Chantal Sicile-Kira (USA), one of the leading American experts on adolescence, who in her paper provides invaluable practical

      tips for teenagers with autism
*   Carole Rutherford (UK), co-founder of Autism-in-Mind (AIM), a national campaign and support group
*   Jeanette Purkis (Australia), an artist with Asperger's syndrome and an uplifting message
*   Christine Breakey (UK), who has particular expertise in further and higher education and was responsible for setting up and

     developing the Autism Support Service in Sheffield

Other international speakers include: Professor Michael Fitzgerald (Ireland), Dr Mitzi Waltz (UK), Dr Julie Donnelly (USA), Dr Roberto Canitano (Italy), Dr Howard Ring (UK), Dr Olga Bogdashina (Ukraine), Professor Colwyn Trevarthen (UK), Stephen Shore (USA), Dr Teija  Kujala (Finland), Professor Stephen von Tetzchner (Norway),  Professor Laurent Danon-Boileau (France), Dr Sven Boelte (Germany), Dr Peter Enticott (Australia), Dr David Beversdorf (USA), Dr Evelyn McGregor (UK), Dr Paul Ashwood (USA),  Dr Shari Au (USA), Dr Dirk Dossche (USA), Dr Diane Williams (USA), Dr Heather Cody Hazlett (USA), Dr Daniel McIntosh (USA), Dr Howard Ring (UK), Dr Richard Griffin (USA) and Dr Molly Losh (USA)

Topics for discussion include: Brain Research, Biomedical Approaches, Education, Asperger's syndrome, Autism and relationships, Autism and computers, Autism and perception, Communication methods, Sensory problems in autism, First-hand experiences - Voices from the spectrum, Genetics, The culture of autism, Autism and the environment, The immunology of autism, Diagnosis, Socialising difficulties in autism,  Music therapy, Language and autism, Autism and the emergency services, Autism in film, Autism in adolescents and Adults with autism. 

To find out more about Autism2006, register for free and receive email updates with all the latest conference news, please go to www.autism2006.org

For further details, please contact myself, Adam Feinstein, at adam@autismcymru.org or telephone Laura Morgan on (0)29 20464940 in Cardiff.

Don't miss this invaluable, free opportunity to put questions to more than sixty of the world's top autism experts – and tell your friends, too!

 

                      Best wishes,

 

                               Adam Feinstein

 

                               adam@autismcymru.org