I need good full-day speakers/trainers on autism spectrum disorders

January 14, 2016 6:43 PM

Part of my job is to bring speakers/trainers on ASD to Montana. I am looking for new presenters. Our primary audience is special education teachers, paraeducators and speech-language pathologists. So who would you suggest as a good presenter/trainer?

I don't need speakers on "This is what ASD is." Our staff already do those trainings.

A core value for our presentations/trainings is to give information that the audience can take and use the next day - we don't bring in theory or "feel good" speakers (though we sometimes support those presentations by other agencies/groups.)

These are presenters we have had in the past:

Michelle Garcia Winner, Rudy Simone, Brenda Smith Myles, Temple Grandin, Linda Hodgdon, Leah Kuypers, Tony Attwood, PECS, TEACCH.

posted by ITravelMontana to Education (5 answers total)

I'm not familiar with big names in the area, but a speaker on "verbal prompting" would be practical and helpful. I use verbal prompting with preschoolers and young children with autism in addition to PECS as a speech therapist.
posted by shortyJBot at 6:53 PM on January 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Check out the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities. The faculty on staff there are doing amazing research, and they also host a yearly conference--the agendas from past years would be a great resource for possibilities.
posted by veery at 7:35 PM on January 14, 2016 [1 favorite]

Steve Silbermans's NeuroTribes has generated a lot of attention about ASD and he is really active on Twitter. He may be an option or he may have some ideas on better speakers who might be closer to Montana.
posted by z11s at 7:57 PM on January 14, 2016 [2 favorites]

Rosemary White is amazing (don't judge her by her website). She speaks and does trainings all over the world.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:57 AM on January 15, 2016

Maybe John Elder Robinson.
posted by jabes at 11:02 AM on January 15, 2016 [1 favorite]