Our Handouts - The info we gave all who attended Dennis' seminars

PEI Eastern Graphic, Wednesday July 19th, 2006

Alex & jypsy/janet would like to thank all the people who supported our Run and made these presentations possible.
From the major donors to the small fistfuls of change, from tip to tip on PEI to as far away as Texas, Florida & London, England, thank you all.
~ Thanks to all who helped in any way ~
As always, a very big thank you to the PEI RoadRunners Club and all it’s members. Their support, from the very first race Alex attended in 2004, to all the incredible help & support we received on our tip to tip Run, inspires us beyond words. Alex would never have dreamt of setting this goal, and achieving it, without their influence.

Thank You Dennis Debbaudt, for coming to PEI and for doing what you do.

Thanks to all of you who took the time and initiative to attended Dennis’ seminars
I hope you come away with a better understanding and awareness of the Autism Spectrum

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Major Donors http://www.PlanetAutism.com/majordonors.htm

• Buzzie's Dairy Bar & Grill, 407 Trans Canada Hwy. Cornwall, PEI
• Cymbria Lions Club
• Autism Society of PEI
• Val & Don
• An autistic woman
• Sherwood-Parkdale Lions Club
• PEI Department of Community and Cultural Affairs
• Richard Harrison
• Dinah Murray
• Anne Bevington
• Dave and Kathleen Seidel, Neurodiversity.com
• An Anonymous Supporter
• Bluefield High School
• Jamie & Deborah Mutch
• The Fulton Campbell Run, in memory of Fulton Campbell
• Scott Clark & Clark's Toyota, Summerside
• City of Summerside
• An autistic woman
• City of Charlottetown
• Mike *Rocketman* Meacher

Credits

• Website designed by Ralph Smith
• Graphics; logo, t-shirt...by Ralph Smith
• Creative input and Moral Support provided by Ralph Smith, Michelle Dawson and Autism Diva
• Webpage photo of Alex crossing the finish line; PEI Half-Marathon 2004 (1:40:50, 27th out of 443) 16 years old - Photo by Deborah Mutch, PEI RoadRunners

Thank You

• PEI Council of the Disabled for assisting and supporting our Run and Dennis Debbaudt's seminars. The PEI CoD is in charge of receiving donations and issuing receipts. Thank you so much for your continued support.
• PEI Credit Unions for accepting donations at your locations across PEI.
• Prince Edward Island Tourism Department for providing accommodations for us on the Western end of PEI at Jacques Cartier, Mill River, Green Park and Linkletter Provincial Parks
• Assistant Manager Rob and Charlottetown Superstore for donating water, Gatorade mix, Power Bars, bug spray & sunscreen for our Run
• Prince Edward Island Department of Education for providing the venue, Charlottetown Rural High School theatre, for the evening seminars
• Holland College for providing their Lecture Theatre for the morning & afternoon seminars
• Dale Larkin, owner of Inn at the Pier in Stanley Bridge, PEI, for providing beautiful accommodations for Dennis when he's here.

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What we’d like you to know about Autism

Autism is a neurological difference classified as a developmental disability. Autistic people have atypical behaviours in three areas: social interaction, communication, and restricted interests or repetitive behaviours. Autistics are different at the most basic level available: how they experience the world, and how they learn from it. Autism presents with measurable differences in perception, attention, memory, intelligence, etc. The autistic order and progress of development is different from the typical version as is autistic brain structure, allocation, and function. Autism presents strengths not available to the typical population, but the different pattern of strengths and weaknesses characterizing autism results in many difficulties as atypical needs and adaptive but atypical autistic behaviours are at odds with what is considered or expected as "normal".

Autism isn't a disease, or a bunch of behaviours, any more than femaleness is. Autism involves neurological differences, which are basic and comprehensive. Autistic neurology is no more or less valid than non-autistic neurology: both autistics and non-autistics are able to develop, learn, progress, and achieve things, but may do so in different ways and may require different kinds of help along the way.

Progress is part of the natural course of development in autistics, as it is in non-autistics, but development in autism may not proceed in the same order as is considered normal for non-autistics. Autistics may, e.g., seem advanced in some areas and delayed in others. Seen in perspective, this means that in comparison with autistics, non-autistics are likely to be advanced in some areas and delayed in others. Non-autistics may need a great deal of assistance in learning things that autistics learn easily, and the reverse may also be true. Seeing as we don't declare non-autistics to be "succeeding in treatment" or "less severely non-autistic" or "recovered" when they develop and learn, it should be clear that describing autistics in these kinds of terms is misleading and prejudicial.

Autistics are alert and aware of what is happening around us, even though we may not be able to show this or respond in expected, typical ways. Autistics also may not communicate in typical ways, and in some situations, will find it difficult to communicate at all. However, this does not reflect a fundamental inability or unwillingness to communicate. Autistics want to communicate, and can do so when provided with a context in which communication is both possible and responded to. This is also true of non-autistics, but non-autistics are much more likely to be provided with contexts in which they can communicate successfully.

Dividing autism into "severe" and "mild", or in similar ways, is misleading and harmful. Autistics may differ in the extent to which autistic traits are or are not obvious, and this may vary in individual autistics from hour to hour, day to day, and year to year, depending on many factors, including on what kind of context an autistic lives in. The extent to which autistic traits are or are not evident in any individual autistic is unrelated to our intelligence and our outcomes as adults. However, societal prejudices against autistic traits may prevent autistics whose traits are more obvious from being considered able to learn, to communicate, to make decisions about our lives, to walk around freely, to be employed, etc.

Michelle Dawson
Pervasive Developmental Disorders Specialized Clinic
Rivière des Prairies Hospital
University of Montréal

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Autism Web Resources

– jypsy’s Picks -

http://www.PlanetAutism.com /run.htm RUNMAN's Race Page – Alex’s running & race page.

http://www.PlanetAutism.com Ooops…Wrong Planet! – My website

http://www.PlanetAutism.com/AuSpin/senate05.htm Autistic Success - My Brief to The Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science, and Technology. The Honourable M. J.L Kirby, Chair

http://www.gettingthetruthout.org/ Getting The Truth Out - *Highly* recommended, but must be read *to the end*.

http://www.autism_hub.co.uk/ Autism_Hub - The best in autism related blogging

http://www.neurodiversity.com/ Neurodiversity.com - Honoring the variety of human wiring

http://www.autistics.org/ Autistics.org - The REAL Voice of Autism

http://www.autistics.org/library/ Autistics.org Library

http://home.att.net/~ascaris1/ Autistic Advocacy

http://www.geocities.com/autistry/oddizms.html Oddizms

http://www.taaproject.com/ The Autism Acceptance Project

http://www.sentex.net/~nexus23/naa_02.html No Autistics Allowed - Explorations in discrimination against autistics

http://policeandautism.cjb.net/ Police and Autism: Avoiding Unfortunate Situations - Dennis Debbaudt

http://www.autismriskmanagement.com/ Autism Risk and Safety Management - Dennis Debbaudt

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Autism-Risk-Safety/ Dennis Debbaudt ‘s Autism Risk & Safety Newsgroup - For those interested in developing positive interactions within the autism spectrum disorders and law enforcement communities.