South Valley Autism Conference
Presented by TACA and Bakersfield FEAT
Saturday, November 8, 2008
8 a.m.-5 p.m.
| Location: |  |
Kern Regional Center 3121 N. Sillect Ave. Ste. 304, Bakersfield, CA Driving Directions |
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| Cost: |
Sorry, registration fees for this event are non-refundable. |
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| 8 a.m. | |
Welcome |
| 8:30 | Special Education Law I: Your Child's Legal Rights Timothy A. Adams, Esq. and Lynne Arnold |
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| 9:30 | BREAK | |
| 9:45 | Special Education Law II: Empowering Parents Timothy A. Adams, Esq. and Lynne Arnold |
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| 11:45 | LUNCH ON YOUR OWN | |
| 12:45 p.m. | Biomedical Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders Ann Wolf, MD, pediatrician |
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| 2:30 | BREAK | |
| 2:45 | Getting Started with a Gluten-free, Casein-free Diet Melanie Vanciel and Ann Wolf, MD |
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| 3:30 | Marriage, Coping & Holding It Together Moira Giammatteo, TACA Families in Crisis Manager |
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| 4:30 | Q&A | |
| 5 p.m. | Close |
Topics
Special Education Law
Advocating for your child is a complex and sometimes counter-intuitive process. Parents will learn the basic concepts of special education law and how to use this knowledge to gain control of their child’s education.
Biomedical Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders
How can biomedical treatments help children with ASD, ADHD and Apraxia? Discussion of GI, immune, and neurologic problems that can be helped by this approach. Diet, nutritional supplementation, medications, HBOT and more will be discussed.
Getting Started with a Gluten-free, Casein-free (GFCF) Diet
The GFCF diet is an important foundation for biomedical intervention. GFCF moms Melanie Vanciel and Ann Wolf will explain how to implement the diet and offer tips and strategies for getting picky kids to go GFCF.
Marriage, Coping & Holding It Together
Parents of special needs children have an exceptionally high rate of divorce. How can parents pull together and stay together when they are devastated by an autism diagnois or simply overwhelmed with how to help their child? Moira will offer practical advice and tips for coping, prioritizing and most importantly, working as a team for the child with autism.
Speaker Biographies
Timothy A. Adams, Esq. received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Irvine and his Juris Doctorate degree from Pepperdine University School of Law. He has served as an adjunct professor and Associate Director of the Special Education Advocacy Clinic, Pepperdine University School of Law. He is actively involved in educating parents through presentations to disability rights organizations and parent support groups including speaker at Autism One (2005-2008), the National Autism Association (2005 and 2007-2008) and the National Epilepsy Foundation Annual Conference (2001). He has been interviewed and quoted in publications including the Daily Journal (2001), the Orange County Register and the nationally published magazine Parenting (March 2003); He is the managing partner at Roberts & Adams.
Lynne Arnold is the chapter coordinator for Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) of Visalia, CA and an Autism One parent mentor. Through community activism and advocacy as well as conference presentations and mentoring, she helps parents to understand their child's rights to appropriate interventions and education. Lynne is the editor of Autism: Asserting Your Child’s Rights to a Special Education by David A. Sherman. She has presented at Autism One (2005-2008), National Autism Association Conference (2005 and 2007-2008), FEAT and for other autism groups.
Moira Giammatteo is the proud parent of two, Vico 11 (ASD) and Culzean 8. When Vico was diagnosed with autism in 1999 Moira threw herself into reading everything she could about this disorder. Finding out about various therapies that could help her child was the main focus of those first months. What soon became clear was that there was a lot to learn and that there was no “one” answer. Moira learned about the various behavioral approaches as well as speech and occupational therapy. Then she discovered another component to this baffling disorder – biomedical intervention. Reading Karyn Seroussi’s book Unraveling the Mysteries of PDD and Autism was a revelation. After eight years of implementing gluten-free/casein-free diet and adding in supplements, enzymes and even chelation Moira considers herself a knowledgeable amateur and is happy to share her experiences with others. She has also been happily married to another parent mentor, Michael Giammatteo, for 16 years. Moira also hosts the San Fernando Valley Chapter of TACA with the help of her husband Michael and co-facilitator Cathy Beier.
Melanie Vanciel and her husband Derek have three beautiful children. Their oldest son Kaden (9) was diagnosed with ASD at age 5, daughter Sloane (7) is an ABA therapist in the making, and son Rhys (5) who was also diagnosed on the spectrum at age 2. Melanie and Derek found TACA shortly after Kaden was diagnosed and began biomedical and behavioral interventions. When Rhys was diagnosed they began treatments for him as well. Kaden has made vast improvements over the past 4 years and is in a regular education 3rd grade class. Rhys officially "lost" his diagnosis shortly before his 4th birthday and is ALL BOY and is getting ready for kindergarten. Both boys remain GFCF, continue to see their DAN! doctor and still receive biomedical interventions. The Vanciel family was recently featured in the documentary"Autism Yesterday." Melanie volunteers with TACA because she feels that without them her family would not be as successful as it is today!
Ann Wolf, MD, graduated from the College of William and Mary with a BS in Psychology, and MD from the University of Virginia Medical School. Dr. Wolf did an Internship/Residency in Pediatrics at UCSD Medical Center and the Children's Hospital of San Diego where she was Chief Resident (1996-2000). Dr. Wolf has attended three DAN! Clinican trainings and her practice, Whole Child Wellness, is focused on the holistic biomedical treatment of autism and other neurobiologic conditions.
Questions?
For travel/hotel information or any other questions, please contact Lynne.
Special thanks to Kern Regional Center for their support and hosting the conference.
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| Before | During | After |
I had Christian when I was 19 years old. For the first year of his life I couldn’t imagine anything being wrong with my baby. He smiled; he laughed; he rolled, crawled and walked on time. At age one he had a massive overload for his little immune system. He had two ear infections, a high fever, back to back treatment of major antibiotics and he was given his MMR, varicella and HIB vaccines while he was still very sick. Christian faded away for the next 6 months.
At age two he was diagnosed with full syndrome Autism. I met an amazing mother who introduced me to the group Talk About Curing Autism. Before I found out about TACA, I had no clue that there was hope for my child. From that day on I knew that it was my job to get my son back and undue what had been done to him.
It has been three years since Christian was diagnosed with Autism. I had taken what I had learned from TACA, found wonderful therapists, began a diet, found a DAN! Doctor, and took control of my child’s health. I heard his first word when he was 38 months old, and let me tell you, it was worth the wait.
Today Christian attends a typical private preschool. He is the only child in the class with a diagnosis…and none of the other parents know that. He speaks clearly, has friends, reads, pretends on the playground and even knows what he wants to be when he grows up (which of course changes weekly).
I can honestly say, if I had not found that mom (you know who you are), and not been introduced to TACA, I don’t know where Christian would be today and I don’t know if I would ever have been able to help other parents starting this journey. Thank you TACA, thank you my hero mom, and thank you Christian for fighting this with me. I love you.
Chelsi, Washington State
