Archive for July, 2010
Getting ready for the BIG Event
by Amber on Jul.31, 2010, under Fundraising Events
SambAZ and Grupo Liberdade
How I came up with the fundraiser event…
by Amber on Jul.21, 2010, under Fundraising Events
I attended their Carnaval Brasil event in Tempe on March 13th of this year. The show was so amazing, so full of energy – it was electric! I knew I had to figure out a way to feature them at a fundraising event.
Nathaniel and SambAZ dancers
I am also very encouraged to establish a relatioship with Kent and the fine people over at the Children’s Center for Neurodevelopmental Studies.
Hope to see you there… 
Amber xoxo
Welcome to Shane’s Notebook
by Amber on Jul.20, 2010, under Fundraising Events
Shanesnotebook.org is soon to be a non-profit entity that will create scholarships and grants for autistic student programs, such as music and dance therapy.
The ultimate goal is to establish this site as a portal for support to families facing the challenges of nurturing a developmentally delayed or chronic care child. This includes educating parents on how to advocate for their child’s special needs.
Eating a cookie. January 2003
In addition to honoring Shane’s memory , the organization will create awareness for developmentally delayed children by fundraising for scholarships & grants to benefit autistic student therapies and supplemental school programs. And finally, Shane’s Notebook will begin to gather home care supplies and equipment to distribute to medically ill children.
Nathaniel can spell!
by Amber on Jul.19, 2010, under Autism & Technology, Nathaniel Updates
Augmentive Communication Technology @ Home
Nathaniel has had the benefit of having tech savvy parents, and a few good Autism resource school teachers, unafraid to turn him loose on a computer. To date, he still loves surfing PBSkids.org and his personal YouTube channel, unassisted. I am so proud of him. His Autistic cousin, Trinity also loves to logon to Google and do web searches all day for her favorite television shows, like PowerPuff Girls.
Up until last Sunday, however, I was not sure how his reading was progressing. It is so difficult to know what skills are developing and what information is being retained because he cannot talk to you. Without his voluntary speech, there is no expression of the learning…until you pay attention to what he does. He types!
Nathaniel spells "disneypixar" and "nickelodeon" on his Dynavox.
This is the Dynavox. A very expensive Augmentive Communication Device. Although I believe an Apple iPad would do the job better. Below, you will see Sophia. She is Nathaniel’s little sister. While she is not affected by Autism or other learning disorders, she enjoys playing with PECS symbols – a primary communication tool for the majority of Autistic children. Visual recognition of shapes, patterns and images is the foundation of cognitive [language] development.
Sophie plays with Nathaniel's picture symbol library.
