Autism Society of America
Greater Georgia Chapter
4th Annual Autism/Asperger Conference
March 7-8, 2008
www.asaga.com

"Extreme Make-over: School Edition! Practical Strategies for
Modifying the Educational Environment to Increase Student
Understanding and Decrease Challenging Behaviors"
By: Susan Stokes, M.A., CCC-SLP, Educational Autism Consultant

School environments can be confusing, over-whelming, and fearful for
students with autism spectrum disorder. This fast-paced session will
show numerous, practical, easy to implement strategies for immediate
use to modify the educational environment to increase student
understanding of environmental expectations, and task expectations
within various school environments. Use of these strategies has shown
to decrease the occurrence of challenging behaviors in students with
autism spectrum disorder, by increasing their comprehension and
understanding of various school environments.

"The Organized Management of the Autism Classroom: OMAC"
By: Cindy Golden, Ed.S.

The Organized Management of an Autism Classroom: OMAC is an organized
way of putting the theory and best practices used in Autism today
into practical use in the classroom. It is an organized, layered
approach to setting up and managing a classroom for not only students
with Autism but other special needs across the spectrum.
OMAC is a simple compilation of the best practices and best
strategies from the growing field of research in the area of Autism.
There are six organizational foundation layers to OMAC. The six
components cover every aspect of efficiently setting up and running a
model Autism classroom setting including; Environmental Organization,
Communication Organization, Teaching Organization, Behavioral
Organization, Data/Paperwork Organization, and Classroom Staff
Management & Home Support Organization.

"Inclusive Education"
By: Patrick Schwarz, Ph.D.

In this session, we will examine rationales for inclusive education,
delineate planning processes, illustrate tools such as IEP at a
glance and examine instructional strategies such as adaptations and
differentiation that assist to make the model successful.
Applications will assist participants to consider their own students
and classroom situations in creating individual support plans.

"Curricular Adaptations and Differentiated Instruction"
By: Patrick Schwarz, Ph.D.

Curricular Adaptations are materials, technology, sequences and
procedures to help a learner be successful in the classroom.
Differentiated instruction is when you apply these strategies for all
the students in the teaching environment. In this session we will
examine examples, planning processes and apply them to participant
classroom and teaching situations.

"Classroom Sensory Interventions and Student Learning
Outcomes"
By: Ginny Van Rie, M.Ed.

Since individuals with ASD process sensory input differently that
typical peers their optimal level of arousal appears to be different
and thus they have to modulate sensory input in a variety of ways in
order to reach a level of optimal arousal. Often the repetitive and
stereotyped behaviors children with ASD employ to achieve their
optimal level of arousal interfere with their ability to engage with
instructional materials and learning activities. The ability to
engage in learning materials and activities is fundamental to
academic success. Thus it is imperative that teachers, parents,
therapists and caregivers help individuals with ASD reach optimal
levels of arousal by using various sensory interventions. It is
theorized that the sensory activities help the individuals with ASD
modulate sensory input using their vestibular and proprioceptive
systems. However, there is limited empirical evidence that these
sensory activities improve the ability of students with ASD to attend
and engage in learning activities. Thus the results of applied
research conducted in a public school classroom will be presented
regarding the use of sensory interventions and student learning
outcomes. Based on the results of the research there are positive
outcomes for students who are exposed to the appropriate sensory
interventions prior to academic instruction.

"Current Issues in Providing Individualized Positive Behavior
Supports in School"
By: Dan Crimmins, Ph.D.

This presentation will address current issues facing personnel who
provide individualized positive behavior supports (IPBS) in schools
and other settings. The presenter will synthesize existing research
on IPBS, outline unfinished aspects of the IPBS research agenda,
discuss dissemination challenges, and review demonstrated and
promising practices in IPBS. Participants will obtain resources and
strategies linked to particular classes of challenging behavior.
This presentation is intended for personnel who provide, support, and
coach the implementation of individualized PBS in schools and related
settings.

Among the current challenges in IPBS are: unclear mandates in the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); lack of agreement
regarding the necessary components of the functional behavior
assessment (FBA) and behavior intervention plan (BIP); the expertise,
time, and effort required; the absence of PBS from preservice
training in a range of disciplines; limited resources in schools and
other settings; the need to effectively involve personnel in both
schoolwide and IPBS efforts; and limited awareness of and involvement
in PBS among child advocates, including families.