Presenter	Audience	Topic	Zoom link
Krisanne Lewis	Families Caregivers	Sensory Friendly Home Do you have a sensory seeker? A sensory avoider? Both? Join us in learning how to adapt your home into a sensory supportive environment. The strategies provided are cheap and easy to implement for any family!
Jared Stewart	Families Caregivers	Autism: The Lived Experience Much of the discussion around autism focuses on research into possible causes, cures, and tools for parents and professionals. And while all of this is wonderful and necessary, it leaves out a tremendously significant piece of the autism "puzzle" -- the lived experience of the autistic person themselves. If autism is so difficult and complicated for those who work with it, what is it like for those who LIVE with it? Well, like every person on the spectrum, life on the spectrum is totally unique-- but there are strong threads of similarity. Jared Stewart, M.Ed., is a professional running a school for adults with autism, a parent of a child with autism, and an autistic person with a lifetime of data points from his own journey to successful adulthood. In this entertaining and insightful keynote, Jared will empower you to better take the individual's sensory, cognitive, and social-emotional perspectives into account-- and to begin to see Autism from the inside. Whatever your personal "lived experience" is with ASD, come and learn five simple but powerful principles for transforming how you look at, work with, communicate to, and LOVE someone on the autism spectrum.
Summer Gunn	Families Educators	Let's Play This session will overview the social and cognitive skills necessary for young children to benefit from play. Then we will discuss evidence based practices that may be implemented to teach both social engagement in play and object manipulation. Strategies will include, peer-mediated interventions, script fading, activity schedules and prompt fading.
Christine Manning Jesse Yarger	Families Caregivers Educators	Teaching New Skills As teachers and parents, we are tasked with teaching new behaviors, from toilet training to walking appropriately in the hallway. This presentation will teach participants how to use Behavior Skills Training, an evidence-based method to teach new behavior skills to the children we love.
Liz Banner	Families Caregivers Educators	The unspoken social cues, how to navigate them and develop rapport. Rapport is the ability to enter someone else's world, to make him feel that you understand him, that you have a strong common bond. - Tony Robbins Children with autism typically experience a range of behaviors and emotions that can push others away at home and school, and their relationships with parents, teachers, and peers can often be strained. Children with autism can sometimes have stressful interactions with their parents or teachers that make it difficult for them to establish and maintain strong relationships. This lack of a strong relationship in their lives can lead to difficulties at school and at home and can display lower levels of academic achievement and motivation. Having my own son with autism, and working with countless children who have autism and other disabilities over the past 12 years, has helped me realize that the foundation for working with difficult behaviors needs to be founded on a good relationship. Building a relationship with someone who is trying to push you away, however, is not easy. Knowing when and how to approach a child (or teenager) who is exhibiting a difficult behavior is not magic, it is a skill like anything else. Understanding and developing these skills can help build relationships with not only children with autism but can be used with anyone that you interact with.
Jason Grygla	Families Caregivers Educators	Screen Addiction and Autism Obsessive-compulsive yes, addicted no, but they sure do love their electronics! Meeting needs, finding balance, and understanding the attraction of screen use to effectively mentor your loved one into a balanced(ish) life when technology and screen use is here to stay. We will discuss why ND brains are especially susceptible to over-screen use, why it isn't addiction, and what to do about it.
Nicole Wangsgard Jennifer Mckenzie	Families Caregivers Educator	Peer Mediated Video Modeling How to implement Video Modeling using typical peers as models to increase social communication skills in children with ASD
Emily Sagendorf	Families Caregivers Educators	Behavior Basics: Positive and Proactive Strategies Can changing our own behavior really change the behavior of those struggling around us? YES! This session looks at the basics to see what simple steps we can take to create more positive environments with a focus on reinforcement: what it is, what it isn’t and ideas to implement it in your home or classroom.
Bret Shumway	Families Caregivers, Educators Youth Leaders	Let's Keep These Kids Involved: How To Coordinate, Prepare, and Properly Plan To Maximize Engagement In Sports, Church, Youth Programs, and Other Activities Every child deserves to enjoy out-of-school activities with their peers. Unfortunately, many children with special needs have a hard time being appropriately involved, and adult leaders don't always know how to help. We'll focus on how to develop appropriate coping and crisis plans in various outside of the home activities, to help children and youth avoid and manage problem situations and engage with their peers. We will also provide an easy guide to setting up situation-specific support plans and safe people to help carry out the plan.