Autism Conference

Community Services for Children, in conjunction with a half dozen public and private organizations, is planning a full-day conference on autism, February 19, 2010, at the Fogelsville Holiday Inn. Keynote speaker is Dr. Vincent Carbone, a nationally-renowned speaker, author, and developer of approaches to teaching children with autism.
Autism is a complex disorder of the central nervous system of unknown cause and without cure. It is considered one of the major health problems of the current era with estimates running as high as one child in 150 falling within the autism spectrum.

Individuals with autism generally have three defining characteristics: problems with social interactions, impaired verbal and non verbal communication, and a pattern of repetitive behavior with narrow, restricted interests. Autism may appear with mild symptoms in which a child has some difficulty with social nuances, making friends and behaving appropriately to very severely involved children whose verbal skills are slim to none or seem to be living in a world of their own. Sometimes infants seem to be developing normally and suddenly show symptoms of autism. For instance, a child may be walking and talking normally for their age at 18 months and suddenly stop talking all together.

For a conference of this caliber, professionals typically must travel a distance. For parents, such a conference is usually out of the question due to time, travel and cost. Conference fees have been set to accommodate both. The professional fee is $75; parent fee is $20.

A multidisciplinary panel of experts on the topic will also be featured. Continuing education credits will be available for teachers, social workers, and psychologists. A resource fair will be available for parents. The other organizations helping to develop the conference include: ARCH of Lehigh Valley, The Autism Society of America Lehigh Valley Chapter, Glenn Koch & Associates, Lehigh-Carbon Intermediate Unit #21, Lehigh County Early Intervention, and Northampton County Early Intervention.

For more information, contact Gregory Edwards, 610-437-6000, ext 2106; gedwards@cscinc.org.