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Autism touches all of us. . . through our children, grandchildren or the children of our friends. It is time to take action to combat this scourge that is stealing the minds of our children. If you or someone you know has a child with autism, here are some tips from a family that has been traveling the path for the last five years.

Click here to download the full flyer for this event (PDF) Dr. Tony Attwood: World renowned Autism Spectrum expert - Clinical Psychologist Professor at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia - Founder and director of Minds and Heats: An Autism Clinic Missoula, MT - July 19, 2010 University of Montana University Center Ballroom 7:30 am - 4:30 pm Visit www.tonyattwood.com or www.fhautism.com to learn more. Tickets available at www.www.umt.edu/griztix

AdastraSoft's goal is to provide a set of innovative, user-friendly mobile application solutions to assist those who have various special communication and education needs to realize their full potential. We design our products with community-centric model in mind: Your ideas and suggestions will help shape the content and presentation of our software.  We welcome you to explore our site, and hope you would become a contributing member of our software community.

Special education used to be a place—sometimes a separate school, more often a classroom down the hall where students labeled as such disappeared for hours at a time, out of sight and out of mind for the typical classroom teacher. That’s still sometimes the case, but increasingly, special education is front and center in the regular education classroom, and the population of students with individualized education plans has shifted away from those considered learning disabled.

Fewer students have been diagnosed with learning disabilities, but more students are being diagnosed with autism. “You’re not sending a child somewhere when you provide special ed. You’re providing them a service,” says Mary Watson, director of the Exceptional Child Division in the North Carolina Department of Education. “Special education is not a place; special education is individualized instruction with supports and services.”

I want to tell you a secret about Autism Awareness. I'm telling you because you have a stake in the autism community; whether you touch one or many lives, you can change them, you are powerful. And, like me, you care. You want to make a difference -- for yourself, for your child, for someone you love, for someone who depends on you. And you can make a difference, you will, if you keep this cornerstone of Autism Awareness in mind at all times. Ready? Here it is: Behavior is communication. That's it. That's all. That's everything.

DENVER - Chase was just 18 months old when he started speaking his first words and sentences to a stunned mom and dad.

"It started with him just loving books, picking up books and playing with them," Brett Perry, Chase's father, said. "Then he went into this fascination with numbers and letters." Before they knew it, Chase was doing more than just looking at the letters. He was reading full words out loud, and then full sentences out loud. Mind you he wasn't even 2 years old.

The most artfully devised curriculum means little to a student whose mind is fixed on last night’s shooting outside or the scary, violent fight between parents that broke out in the kitchen. Brilliant teaching often can’t compete with the sudden loss of a parent or friend. Yet incidents like these reverberate in schools and pose deep challenges to educators.

All parents endure stress, but studies show that parents of children with developmental disabilities, like autism, experience depression and anxiety far more often. Struggling to obtain crucial support services, the financial strain of paying for various therapies, the relentless worry over everything from wandering to the future — all of it can be overwhelming.

All parents endure stress, but studies show that parents of children with developmental disabilities, like autism, experience depression and anxiety far more often. Struggling to obtain crucial support services, the financial strain of paying for various therapies, the relentless worry over everything from wandering to the future — all of it can be overwhelming.