Gil Presenting at USAAA, on Free Live Stream, Thursday 7/30/15

I am so lucky to be presenting at the United States Autism and Asperger Association National Conference in Tucson this week. I will, of course, be talking about Rebecca School and developmentally appropriate ways of supporting students and adults with neurodevelopmental challenges of relating and communicating. The great news is you can watch it live, free, by going to the USAAA live stream, here, at 11:00 am Pacific time, or 2:00 pm Eastern time. I am not sure about the status of the talk in a future archive, but if you want to see my current thinking about DIR/Floortime and education, you can see me live at a really terrific conference!

Gil Tippy and Christopher Gauthier at USAAA

This is a snippet of an hour long public talk Christopher Gauthier and I gave at the United States Autism and Asperger Association national conference in Kansas City this Fall. USAAA just put this up on line, it had originally gone out live on a live feed from the conference, and I was really pleased to be able to link to it. USAAA is a very cool group, dedicated to finding sensible answers to dietary, biological and intervention questions for the Autism and Asperger community. I am always delighted to be asked to participate. This year I got to sample (and by sample I mean I ate every meal!) Kansas City barbeque. I also got to spend time with Chris Gauthier, the immensely talented photographer and inspiring activist. He and his wife Jacqui are the kind of friends who you dearly want to spend more time with, but somehow cannot make all the busy schedules work to get together. We all have these friends, and the Gauthiers are mine. I console myself by having access to Chris’ work, and by these annual conferences where we get to touch base once again. Maybe now that I am part time on the west coast, in Santa Rosa, CA, so that the distance between the Gauthiers and the Tippy’s is shorter, we can finally make our visits more regular. Check out Chris’ work at the link above, and notice the gallery of pictures we are sitting in front of on stage at USAAA. They are also Chris’s work.

Gil and Christopher Gauthier at United States Autism and Asperger National Conference

Hope some of you got to see the amazing Christopher Gauthier and me streaming live from the United States Autism and Asperger Association national conference. Here we are on stage, after the presentation, in front of some of Christopher’s Photographs from his Facing Autism project. You can access that here http://www.christophergauthier.com/ , or you can follow the link to it from my home page http://www.drgiltippy.com . We had an amazing day here in Kansas City. Wish you were here to see it.

Developmental Therapies and Health for Autism At USAAA in Salt Lake City

How inspiring, to meet a group of heroes in Salt Lake City. Lawrence P. Kaplan, PhD,

Larry Kaplan

the Founder and Chairman of US Autism & Asperger Association, and Theresa K. Wrangham

Theresa Wrangham

, a parent advocate,former president of the Autism Society of Colorado, member of the Advisory Board of USAAA, and just plain nice person, welcomed me to the conference with open arms, and made me feel welcome right from the start. This is unusual in an organization, this pervading feeling of welcome and openness, and I felt it when I walked into the conference.

This conference is a beautiful mix of parents, advocates and people with Autism, and the presentations were right on. I learned a lot about nutrition, that will help my family, and change some of the recommendations I make to families. I also saw the need to bring together all of the people across the country who believe in advocacy and respectful, developmental treatment and support. I met Kathleen Werr, of The Wild Idea, a parent advocate and a hands on creator, who is creating a cutting edge social “happening” for autistic adults in Washington State. (Happening is my word; Sorry Kathleen. That’s my 60’s sensibility sneaking in!) I met Jacquelynn Bradley, a parent advocate, and creator of a transition program in Utah, that matches all of the respectful, developmental standards we have been trying create in New York. They are just examples of the literally hundreds of folks I met who were all positive and assertive about what directions this world has to move in.

I was blown away by getting the chance to meet, and talk to, Patricia Lemer, MEd, NCC,

Patricia Lemer

who has been doing and saying for 40 years a lot of what I thought I had invented! I am reading her book now, Envisioning A Bright Future and it is so exciting to see the groundbreaking work she did to make it possible for folks like me to advocate for sensible developmental therapies, and for children playing rather than doing worksheets. She has begun a very exciting documentary project that I hope to play a part in, and I will talk more about that soon. Here is the link to Patricia’s organization, Developmental Delay Resources. If this were your only resource, you could put together a top-notch, developmentally appropriate program!

I could write for quite a long time about this, but I just want to thank Larry and Theresa, and Jaqui and Chris Gauthier in particular, for the invitation. This conference, and these people, are changing the world for the better.

Dr. Tippy in Salt Lake City to speak at the United States Autism and Asperger Association National Conference

I am so excited to be here in Salt Lake City today at the beginning of this very cool conference. I am not among the great photos you see here, taken by Christopher Gauthier, but I think I will be able to spend some time with Chris here at the conference, and finally get to meet Jackie Gauthier, whom I have known and admired from afar for a long time.  We will be

presenting on a panel together on Saturday: Panel: Building Relationships, Marriage, and Family in the Context of Autism
Christopher Gauthier, MFA
Jacqueline Gauthier
Lori K. Brill, PsyD
Gil Tippy, PsyD

I am also lucky enough to be presenting on a panel on Friday, where I hope I make all my colleagues at Rebecca School proud:
Panel 2: Special Education in the Schools
Gil Tippy, PsyD
Rebecca Anderson, MA (teacher)
Hanne O’Brien, MS, OT
Michelle Vance, MCD, CCC-SLP

I’m sorry you can’t all be here, as the line up of people and topics is phenomenal, but I will post updates, and if you click on the links to the USAAA website, you can get the whole conference in a digital format, so you really don’t have to miss a thing.