• NEWSLETTER • APRIL/MAY 2015 Discovering pathways to potential IRABINA IS A NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION PROVIDING EARLY INTERVENTION AND OTHER SERVICES FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH AUTISM INSIDE... Services Update Fundraising and Supporters Update Training & Development & more... World Autism Awareness Month Superheroes for autism were out in force at the Tan Track Botanic Gardens on Sunday morning March 29th 2015 to launch World Autism Awareness month of April. Over 240 runners and walkers dressed as superheroes to take on the challenge to raise awareness and funds for autism. As the month is still ticking over the final figures raised for the event are not official but it looks to be over $20,000. As for raising awareness the Superheroes for autism made it onto the Channel 7, 9 and 10 evening news. This media coverage provided great exposure for autism and followed up from last years Channel 10’s ‘The Project’ feature on autism and Irabina. Irabina Autism Services ABN 62 006 245 996 Head Office: 193 Bayswater Road, Bayswater VIC 3153 Branch: 454 Princes Hwy, Officer VIC 3809 Ph: 03 9720 1118 Fax: 03 9720 6641 www.irabina.com Irabina’s Marketing Manager, Rebecca Gallaher said, “We are so pleased that we have created an event that enables us to celebrate autism and provide it with the positive attention that it deserves. The support we have had for this event is wonderful and we appreciate all the contributions whether people participated in the event, made a financial contribution or volunteered their time. It was certainly a huge team effort, for autism.’ The fabulous sponsors of the event deserve acknoledgement: Budget Rent a Car, Foot Solutions, Oscars 100, Springfree Trampolines, Aston Ryan Malcolm, United Project Solutions, AppTech and supporters Maroondah Printing, costumes. com.au, Rotary Box Hill, Larrissa Hill Photography, Belinda Vitacca Photography and all the wonderful folk at Bendigo Bank who have been raising money for Irabina through 176 Victorian branches. For More Info. CHeck www.irabinasuperhero.com • NEWSLETTER • APRIL/MAY 2015 Catch up with CEO Deb... April welcomes World Autism Awareness Month. A time when the entire Autism Community seeks to provide the community with greater knowledge and hopefully acceptance for those living with Autism. At Irabina, we seek every opportunity we can throughout the year to provide a greater awareness. To celebrate World Autism Day, we also had the opportunity to meet with players from the Carlton Football Club. Mick Malthouse, even gave some coaching tips to one of our young ladies who came along. Our Inaugural Superhero Fun Run provided a wonderful opportunity to bring our families and friends together to run or walk around “The Tan”. Officially opened by Member for Deakin, Michael Sukker MP, the event was a fantastic success. We were stopped by members of the general public enjoying their Sunday morning run at the Tan, asking us what we were doing. Many of these people decided to offer us support by registering and running on the day which was fantastic. The Fun Run featured on the nightly bulletins across Australia providing a wonderful story of Autism and community involvement. This month also bought awareness of a number of other critical issues for those living with Autism. We had the case of Luke Shambrook missing in rugged bushland for 5 days. How fantastic that Luke was found relatively unharmed. Irabina’s Chairman, Jenny Newman featured on Channels Ten and 9 provided insight as a fulltime carer of her grandson with Autism. Jenny is featured in this Newsletter providing a more detailed story. We also had the case of a schoolboy with autism, allegedly being placed in a twometre metal enclosure by his Canberra public school. The public outcry on this has been extensive. ACT Education Minister Joy Burch herself stated she was “immensely disappointed disturbed and quite frankly disgusted” by the incident. We support the outcry and hopefully measures will be put in place to ensure this type of situation never occurs anywhere in Australia again. We need to provide as much awareness and education in to the community that we can. We encourage you all to link to our Social Media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube) and create as much awareness of Autism as we can. Together we can educate, create awareness and make difference in the lives of all people living with Autism. From all of us at Irabina Autism Services we would like to wish all Mother’s a wonderful and Happy Mother’s Day on Sunday 10 May 2015. To celebrate Mother’s Day we are holding a special Mother’s Day Raffle to be drawn on Friday 8 May 2015. Tickets are $2 or 3 for $5. Purchase at Bayswater Reception. Carlton Football Club Paint the MCG Blue Carlton Football Club players and champion Coach Mick Malthouse recently took time out from their busy training schedule to join with Irabina to celebrate and promote World Autism Awareness Month. This event coincided with Carlton’s bid to paint the MCG Blue with Carlton Members on the first day of the AFL 2015 Season - 2 April which also happens to be World Autism Awareness Day (WAD). Irabina’s Superhero ‘Spectro’ and number of Irabina families joined the players to celebrate and promote Autism Awareness. Around the world landmark buildings and icons light up Blue (the colour that represents Autism Spectrum Disorder for WAD. These include: The Eiffel Tower, The Empire State Building and the Pyramids of Egypt. PAGE 2 • NEWSLETTER • APRIL/MAY 2015 World Autism Awareness Month Continued from Front Page. World Autism Month continues through to the end of April 2015. It’s not too late to sign up as a Super Fundraiser for Autism at https://irabinarun15. everydayhero.com/au/sign-up The runners are able to retrieve their official times from http://tomatotiming. racetecresults.com/results. aspx?CId=16&RId=28332 In addition to the Irabina Superhero Fun Run, Irabina also gave blue balloons to all children who attended Irabina services on April 2, 2015 for World Autism Awareness Day. Irabina will also hand out Sensory Packs to all Maroondah Schools before the end of the month thanks to a Community Development Grant from Maroondah City Council. Deakin University Partnership Update - Research News The Deakin Child Study Centre Mobile Research Lab attended Irabina on the 17-19th February. Our team wanted to say a big thank you to the staff, parents, and children at Irabina who participated in the research. Our research group has been interested in the walking patterns of children with ASD for many years now, but thanks to Irabina this was the first time we were able to invite children as young as 2 years of age to the study. This is an important breakthrough for our research that seeks to see if different walking patterns might be an early diagnostic marker for ASD. Thank you to Irabina and all the families who were involved in this research! Get Involved in Research There are currently a number of research projects underway at Deakin University, Irabina’s research partner. If you are interested in participating, please contact us. If you would like to be informed about future studies, please email your contact details to Professor Nicole Rinehart: Nicole.rinehart@deakin. edu.au Active Lifestyles in Young Children with Autism - Improving our understanding of health, sleep, physical activity and motor development in children with autism. The aim of this research is to see how movement skills, like balance, catching and throwing a ball in 4 to 6 year old children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relate to their levels of physical activity, sleep and participation in everyday activities. Children will complete an intellectual assessment and complete tasks to assess their movement skills. The assessment will take around 2 hours to complete and can occur at Irabina, Deakin University or at your home. Children will then wear a soft, elasticized belt with a small activity monitor attached for 8 consecutive days which will record their level of physical activity. Parents will complete a survey that will provide us with basic demographic information about you and your family and how much physical activity your child engages in, and your own and your child’s emotional health. We will also ask you to complete your view of your child’s movement ability using a short picture survey of children doing 18 skills as well as short questionnaires regarding your child’s ASD symptoms and their sleep habits. This will take around 1 hour. Parents will also be asked to record the number of hours their child sleeps while wearing the activity monitor. Some parents will then also be asked to participate in a brief interview with the researchers which can be conducted via telephone. This informal interview will help us understand what parents think helps or hinders physical activity participation in young children with ASD. EACH FAMILY WILL RECEIVE A $50 COLES MYER GIFT CARD To find out more please contact Dr Tamara May, 03 9244 5086, tamara. may@deakin.edu.au This study has been approved by Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee, #2014-061 Developing gross motor skills through ‘exergames’ in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Would you and your child like to participate in a fun new study? This study is being conducted through Deakin University. The aim of this study is to see if the use of sports exergames (such as X-box Kinect) can increase movement skills, like balance, PAGE 3 catching or throwing, in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in grades 1-4 at primary school. Many children with ASD have difficulties with movement skills, such as balancing, throwing or catching a ball. It has been shown that children who have difficulty with these skills are more likely to have lower levels of participation in physical activity later in life. Therefore it is important that new ways of improving movement skills are developed that specifically target children with ASD. When? The study will be conducted entirely during 2015, with children’s participation required for approximately two weeks between May-August 2015. Each child will complete cognitive or diagnostic assessments (if not already completed), and tasks to assess their movement skills and a short picture survey. Children will then be provided with an X-Box Kinect to play sports games in their own home for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, children will complete the movement skills tasks and picture survey again. Parents will complete a short survey to provide information about themselves and their child’s participation in sport and games. Parents will complete a short diary during the study recording the time their child spends using the X-Box Kinect, what games they play and how engaged they were in the game. Parents will also be asked to participate in a short interview about their beliefs and views of sports exergames and their child’s abilities at the end of the study. To participate in the study or for more information please contact: Dr Tamara May on 03 9244 5084 or via email tamara.may@deakin.edu.au. This study has been approved by Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee, #2015-027 • NEWSLETTER • APRIL/MAY 2015 Irabina Chair - Jenny Newman Shares Her Exprience and Connection with Autism somehow insulate them from the stress and anxiety? Yes I think it does, does it protect us from panic, no it doesn’t does it keep them safe not sure. Jenny Newman is the Chair of Irabina Autism Services. Jenny was approached recently to share her comments on autism by Channels 10 and 9 when Luke Shambrook was recently found after four days missing. Jenny shares her story with us. Autism is very personal to me, being the full time Carer of a 16 yr old young man who has severe autism, is non verbal and requires one on one care is a rewarding and at times challenging life. Chris attended Irabina as a 3 yr old and I have had a close association with the organisation since, I have spent the last 4 years on the board and am the current Chair. Chris has wanded off four times and we have been through the anguish of Police searches, us left waiting fearfully and hoping he is found safe and unharmed. Each time Chris has been found and whilst we were emotional wrecks Chris was happy to be found but not at all anxious, in fact what we found was he went inside his head and used his autism to block out what the world was doing. He was just on a mission to explore and this involved walking/ wandering. The fearful reality is he was not aware of where he was or what was going on around him. He crossed busy roads with no thought regarding traffic. He wandered into other peoples homes with no concern for who they might be, friend or foe, he locked himself in someones caravan and quietly stayed there. Children with Autism are very different, but when it comes to wandering they display many of the same characteristics. Being alone and wandering is peaceful to them, they enjoy the quietness of their own head space. Our children don’t play hide and seek, this is worrying when they wander as they will not respond to people calling out there name. They in fact tend to lay low and enjoy their own thoughts. Chris covered many, many miles very quickly each time he went missing and he didn’t follow roads or paths, He jumped fences and took unusual directions and ended up in places a long way from where he began. Each time he was found he was calm and completely unaware of why we were all so panicked. It is a concern as a parent to understand that they are not able or aware of the fearful feelings that we have but in some way this also protects them from being as fearful as we are. Is it a blessing, does it Speaking with other parents who have wanderers, they say the same thing, one Dad stated, our son was lost in the bush. This involved SES, Police and campers all searching for hours. Later in the afternoon my son wandered back into camp not all concerned by the number of people, noise and activity going on around him and said, “I am hungry can I eat now”. There is nothing about autism that is guaranteed or given. Each and everyone of our Children behave very differently. The reality is autism is a lack of social skills, a withdrawing of joining in with others a preference for being alone and involved in their own thoughts. Irabina is about supporting our Children to be social, join in and learn life skills. We are also here to support, educate and pass on knowledge to our awesome parents. My heart goes out to Luke, his family and friends. He is safe and relatively unscathed and this is in part because he is autistic. Read more about the Luke Shambrook story here: http://www.news.com.au/ national/victoria/luke-shambrook11-found-after-four-day-search-invictorian-bush-near-lake-eildon/storyfnj4aog3-1227294346165 Irabina Intensive Program available now... The new Irabina Intensive Intervention Program, has completed its first term for 2015 for children aged 2 – 4 years. Research has shown that intensive small group programs for children with autism are effective. The program at Irabina is available in part time and full time formats. The program is staffed by special education teachers, education assistants, and allied health staff (Speech, OT, and Psychology) and overseen by ESDM certified staff. All staff are experts in the field of autism and early intervention. Parent education and support is incorporated into the program. intervention, and provide parents with the support they need to maximise their child’s potential. (Granpeesheh et al, 2009; Odom et al, 2014; Petters-Sheffer et al, 2012; Korzillus & Matson, 2012; Rogers, 2013, and Vivanti et al, 2014). This program is based on world’s best practice for Early Intervention for children with autism – get them while they are young, provide intensive Contact Irabina 9720 1118 for information. PAGE 4 • NEWSLETTER • APRIL/MAY 2015 Fundraising & Supporters Irabina Charity Golf Day 2015 Volunteers from AMGEN came to Irabina on Thursday 12 March 2015. Irabina had 6 dedicated men and woman who worked tirelessly to help with many jobs including gardening, pruning, weeding planting flowers in our front boxes and a lot of administration jobs like creating our intake folders, laminating and making goody bags for our Golf Day. We are very grateful for their wonderful work and look forward to having them out again later in the year. Myer Eastland Fundraising Myer Eastland staff have a fabulous reputation for fundraising for local charities. Irabina was the beneficiary of their fundraising efforts in 2004 and has again been selected in 2014/2015. Myer have their exciting Myer Stores Community Fund fundraising campaign running in store April 18-May 10th. This campaign allows Myer customers to ‘round up’ their purchase to the nearest dollar whilst shopping in store. 100% of donations will go to each Myer store’s respective charity, partner in this case Myer Eastland is proudly supporting Irabina Autism Services. Personalised signage will be displayed on counters throughout Myer Eastland displaying the Irabina logo. Irabina Autism Services together with Major Sponsor Gateway Concrete Pumping was proud to host the 4th annual charity golf day and raise over $10,000 on March 16, 2015. This year the weather was perfect and the keen golfers tried out the amazing course Patterson River Golf Club. Each of the golfers were keen to get out onto the green and show off their incredible skills but first Graeme Herft, a long-time supporter of Irabina, took a member from each of the teams through a putting game to see who was up to par before the match began. Richard Vaughn from Aston Ryan Malcom was close but ultimately Les from Liquid Nitrogen dominated the putting challenge. At 12:30pm the start siren sounded and each of the teams began their way around the 18 hole course. PAGE 5 A drinks cart, sponsored by Century 21, visited all of the players on the course to make sure players were hydrated. At 5 o’clock the games finally quietened down with each of the teams making their way back to Patterson River golf club’s function room to hear the results. The nights portion of events began soon after all of the players were inside. Presentations were made by Debra Goldfinch, Irabina’s CEO. All silent auction items were opened and finger food sponsored by United Project Solutions was a great way to finish off the day. For photos of the day courtesy of Frank Amato please follow this link and enter the password: golf http://frankamato.com.au/casestudies/ private-galleries/irabina-golf-day-2015/ • NEWSLETTER • APRIL/MAY 2015 Training and Events Irabina is into the swing of things for 2015 delivering an information session for Selecting The Right School and offering the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) Introduction session as well as the Advanced session this April 2015. We are always looking for suggestions on topics that parents would like more in depth information on. If you have any suggestions regarding Educational topics or speakers that you would like to see please call Louise on (03) 9720 1118 or email at louisem@irabina.com Upcoming Training The training program caters for professionals, families and community members. All booking can be made securely online for easy access to information and registration. Keep checking the website for the latest training updates and opportunities www.irabina.com The upcoming training available in April and May 2015 includes: - Selecting The Right School - Bayswater Topic 1 of 3 - Mindfulness Meditation - Extended Family Evening – What is Autism? What can I do to Help? - Sensory Processing for Teachers in a Classroom Setting - How to Manage Challenging Behaviour in the Classroom - iPad Workshop - Apps in depth - Disclosing the Diagnosis - Recognising and Responding to behaviours in Children with an ASD - How to Prepare a Childcare Centre or Kindergarten for a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder Please check the website for more information. Training information can be found at www.irabina.com email: louisem@irabina.com or call Reception on (03) 9720 1118. Special Training Opportunities Irabina Autism Services works hard to respond to the needs of families and professionals when it comes to services including training and education. Sweden in April 2015 and Professor Temple Grandin from USA together with Tim Sharp from Australia, in November 2015. Irabina is very proud to present Professor Christopher Gillberg from Book now at www.irabina.com IRABINA PRESENTS SPECIALIST MENTOR CLASS WITH WORLD RENOWNED PROFESSOR GILLBERG Monday & Tuesday 20-21 April 2015 Deakin University, Melbourne Burwood Campus, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC 3125 Cost: $795 Two day conference ticket. More information at www.irabina.com *Suitable for professionals This two day workshop focusses on autism and is not to be missed. Irabina offers you the opportunity to hear from leading autism expert Professor Christopher Gillberg. Professor Gillberg has published more than 600 peer-reviewed scientific papers (565 of which are currently on the NIG PubMed website) on autism, Asperger syndrome, ADHD, Tourette syndrome, intellectual disability, epilepsy, behavioural phenotype syndromes, depression, reactive attchment disorder, anorexia nervosa, and other areas relevant for children´s and adolescents´mental and neurological health. His research ranges from genetics and basic neuroscience through epidemiology and clinical phenomenology to treatments/interventions and outcome. Book now at http://irabina.com/?event=specialist-mentor-class-with-worldrenowned-professor-gillberg IRABINA PRESENTS PROFESSOR TEMPLE GRANDIN AUTISM & MY SENSORY BASED WORLD, TOGETHER WITH TIM SHARP - LASER BEAK MAN Saturday Time Where: 21 November 2015 9am - 5pm Melbourne Park Function Centre. Park & River Rooms Parents and Carers $120 Professionals $165 Cost: Irabina Autism Services is so proud to announce that we will host a workshop in Melbourne from the world renowned Professor Temple Grandin. Dr Temple Grandin is very impressive and a true inspiration for people with autism and their families. She is a best selling author, global speaker on humane livestock handling, and has been the subject of an award winning HBO film. Don’t miss your opportunity to hear Professor Temple Grandin share some of her incredible stories and journey. Tim Sharp the creator of Laser Beak Man will join Temple at this event to share his talents and autism story with us. Register interest at http://irabina.com/?event=exceptional-opportunity-dr-templegrandin-australian-workshop PAGE 6 • NEWSLETTER • APRIL/MAY 2015 Irabina Programs 2015 Irabina is offering a number of program in 2015. This includes the evidence based, specialist psychology, group sessions for children and young people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. These programs are also available to neurotypical children and adolescents with prior consultation with an Irabina psychologist. There are programs for children 5-7 years old and 8-13 years old. Contact Irabina for more information. Auskick 2015 Social Skills After School This program is based on the highly respected and evidence based Social Thinking Model by Michelle GarciaWinner. This group is designed to support children with strong language and learning skills develop the skills they need to become flexible social thinkers and social problem solvers. These skills can be transferred to home and school settings with the support of parents and educators. Site: Bayswater Term 2 (10 weeks) Age: Prep to Grade 2 Monday or Tuesday 4-5pm Cost: Grade 3 to Grade 6 Wednesday 4-5pm $650 HCWA (FaHCSIA eligible) For 10 week program. Please complete and return the registration form to Reception or via email at autism@irabina.com (Forms available from Reception or autism@irabina.com) Please email or call Lydelle Joseph, Team Leader of Speech Pathology at lydellej@irabina.com or (03) 9720 1118. Irabina and Auskick partner to bring your child a football program that he/ she can be actively involved in. This fantastic program was formally evaluated by Deakin University in 2014 and will be evaluated again in 2015. Children who participated significantly improved in kicking skills, and families described the program as ‘wonderful’, ‘amazing’ and even ‘life changing’ for their children. The training sessions are held Saturday mornings during the football season. Site: Starts at Irabina in Bayswater and move off-site at a local Bayswater Oval from week 3. Age: 3+ age Cost: $150 Dates: Saturday April 18 - June 20 9am - 10:30am My Time “My Time” is funded through Playgroup Victoria and is a program aimed at providing support for carers of children with a disability, developmental delay or chronic medical condition. In the “My Time” group there is a particular focus on parenting support, information and providing carers with time out from their caring demands, while their children play and are supported by playgroup helpers/assistants. The Irabina Family Services Team will be facilitating the parents’ group on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Andrea Banks will be facilitator of the children’s playgroup, with support from volunteer staff. Commencing: Tuesday 21st April, 2015 from 11:30am to 12:30pm until Thursday 25th June at Bayswater. Please bring a hat, spare nappies and named drink bottle and snack for your child to each group session. For further information, please contact Katie Ebacioni at 9720 1118 or email Katiee@irabina.com Call Irabina to find out information or register an expression of interest. Mindfulness Meditation An 8-week group program that combines meditation with therapy for people who have a child with autism and have experienced depression or chronic unhappiness. This group teaches a range of exercises and skills based on Meditation and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, a type of therapy which helps people to change unhelpful or unhealthy thinking habits, feelings and behaviours. • Learn gentle and effective techniques that help maintain clarity and well-being • Learn about the patterns of the mind, how to recognise when your mood is starting to sink and how best to respond • Learn the practice of mindfulness meditation by listening to it in classes and at home PAGE 7 • Help break the link between periods of sadness and negative or self-critical thinking Dates: Monday Evenings April 20 – June 8 (inclusive) Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm Venue: Irabina Officer Branch, 454 Princes Highway, Officer, VIC 3809 Cost: FREE – This program has been kindly supported through the Cardinia Local Council Minor Community Support Grants. Participant will need to pay $50 for program resources. For more information please contact Louise Morse on (03) 9720 1118 or via email: louisem@irabina.com • NEWSLETTER • APRIL/MAY 2015 Get Involved Irabina Superhero Fun Run and Fundraiser Photos If you would like to enhance the lives of children and families challenged by autism, please contact Irabina Marketing Manager, Rebecca Gallaher on Ph: (03) 9720 1118 or at rebeccag@irabina.com Diary Dates Training Date Professor Christoher Gilberg April 20/21 Mindfulness Meditation April 20 - June 8 Extended Family Evening – What is Autism? What can I do to Help? April 21 Professor Temple Grandin & Tim Sharp November 21 2015 Thank you to the amazing Irabina Superhero Fun Run sponsors and supporters above! New Irabina Training and Development Schedule is out now for 2015. Book all workshops online at www.irabina.com Fundraising Events Date Mother’s Day Raffle Drawn May 8 Fete May 30 Grand Final Lunch September School Terms 2014/2015 Date Term 1 2015 January 28 March 27 Term 2 2015 April 13 June 26 Term 3 2015 July 13 September 18 Term 4 2015 October 5 December 18 Holidays for Irabina Date ANZAC April 25 Queen’s Birthday June 8 Melbourne Cup November 3 Christmas Day December 25 Download a copy of our Newsletter from our website www.irabina.com facebook.com/IrabinaChildhoodAutismServices MAKE A DONATION www.irabina.com twitter.com/IrabinaAutism IRABINA AUTISM SERVICES Head Office: 193 Bayswater Road Bayswater Vic 3153 Branch: 454 Princes Hwy, Officer, Vic 3809 youtube.com/channel/ UCG9aQEOzeHrUb2FCFlNINbQ P: (03) 9720 1118 F: (03) 9720 6641 linkedin.com/company/ irabina-childhood-autism-services W: www.irabina.com E: autism@irabina.com
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