Transitions to Success: Best practices in supporting students with ASD / BMO Institute for Learning, TorontoON
Date of Conference / Attendees
Friday, April 25, 2008 / Shona Vincent RCP Durham
Karen Stoner RCP Niagara
For more information, Contact me
Email / ,
Phone / 905-985-9374 (Shona), 905-682-2776 (Karen)
A. Summary of key learning’s of the conference attended (bullets).
□Keynote address by Dr. Paula Kluth focused on planning for and facilitating transitions and how that represents a fundamental challenge for students with ASD. She provided many strategies that can assist with navigating successful transitions and how these can springboard to academic and social success for students, teachers and parents.
□The afternoon sessions consisted of break out groups that targeted to key areas 1) Primary / Junior Stream and 2) Intermediate / Secondary Stream. The sessions spoke about a) Promoting Successful Transitions In and Out of the Classroom, b) Tools for Successful Transitions, and c) Entry (for juniour / primary) and Exit (for intermediate / secondary) to/from school.
B. List workshops that you attended.
Shona and Karen both attended the keynote by Dr. Paula Kluth. Shona attended the afternoon of the Primary / Junior Stream and Karen the Intermediate / Secondary Stream.
C. List any additional material that was received (hand-outs, dvd, videos, books, other resources).
D. Key trends identified
The focus was on heavily implementing visual strategies for individuals with ASD and that by pre-planning for all issues that may arise out of transition, we can better prepare the students and thus create a more successful experience for everyone involved.
The presenters also spoke about using the idea of the “Big T” and the “Little T” (T meaning Transition) and by breaking down the various transitions that children and youth with ASD face into ‘big’ and ‘little’ you can help determine the best approach to take with them.
E. Facts/Opinions/Did you know?
F. Websites/Books referenced and recommended
The books of Dr. Paula Kluth were for sale at this event.
G. Important contacts made
This was a conference put on by Kinark for its School Support Program staff, including some SERT’s from their schools and their Transition Coordinators, Social Workers, and other key members of the Central East Autism Program.
H. I would/would not recommend this conference/workshop, for the following reasons
I would recommend listening to Paula Kluth speak any day of the week, she is fantastic and is truly gifted in her filed. I would recommend many of the teachers and parents that I interact with regularly to participate in a workshop like this as the afternoon provided many hands-on examples of visual supports that can be implemented, while much of this portion of the afternoon was a review for both Karen and Shona, it was helpful to take the approach and language used to explain the strategies to educators back to our respective regions.
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