Lots of important news updates

Hi all,

Well, what can I say? There is so much I need to catch up on in these strange, pandemic-dominated times.

Of course, the first (and by far the most important) thing to mention is the death of my mother, Elaine, on September 23, 2019. She died peacefully in a care home at the age of 88. After her death was announced, I was profoundly touched by the hundreds of messages I received from all over the world. Some were friends of Elaine who remembered her wisdom and generosity of spirit. Others were admirers of her writing: her poetry, her novels, her biographies, her translations. Some said that Elaine’s magnificent translations of Marina Tsvetaeva and Anna Akhmatova had inspired them to start writing poetry themselves. I organised an online memorial event to Elaine on Zoom on October 24, 2020 – it would have been her ninetieth birthday. It turned out to be a very moving and memorable event, with personal recollections, poetry and music. My younger daughter, Katriona, read her stunningly beautiful (indeed, heart-breaking) poem to her grandmother, whom she loved. (That poem was published in Michael Schmidt’s wonderful magazine, PN Review.) And I read my own poem to Elaine, ‘The Dismantling.’ Apart from family members, we were joined online on October 24 by Ruth Padel, Fiona Sampson, Ruth Fainlight, Michael Schmidt, Eva Hoffman, Howard Jacobson, Michael Horowitz, and so many more …

As a poet, translator and biographer myself, I can truly say that Elaine was not only a wonderful mother but also a friend and colleague. We would e-mail each other our work and ask for mutual opinions. She taught me that a good poem (or translation) must sing – the music is so important. Which is why I am glad she lived long enough for me to read some of my new rhyming translations of the great Nicaraguan poet, Rubén Darío. It is fair to say that she had an ambivalent attitude to the use of rhyme in poetry – she thought poets often employed it excessively. But I think she agreed I was right to respect the musicality of Darío’s verse. After all. he himself said, in his prologue to his collection, Prosas profanas: ‘Cada palabra tiene un alma’ (Every word has a soul.) By preserving his use of rhyme in my English translations, I hope to have preserved Darío ‘soul’ – meaning the rhythm and sound of the original. My collection of Darío translations was first published in Nicaragua itself in January 2020. A UK edition was then published by Shearsman in October 2020. Here is a link to an excellent review of the Shearsman edition:

http://stridemagazine.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-cloud-walker.html

I also wrote a blog for my good friend, Graham Henderson, about Dario’s dramatically disillusioning encounter in Paris with his literary hero, Verlaine. Here’s the link:

https://www.rimbaudverlaine.org/en/news/ruben-dario-meets-his-hero/

I have had four other books out since I last posted on this blog! The Spanish and Italian editions of my history of autism, first of all. Then, in 2018, Routledge published my book on autism and employment, Autism Works: A Guide to Successful Employment Across the Entire Spectrum. In 2019, Arc brought out my latest book of translations of Pablo Neruda’s poetry, The Unknown Neruda, much of which had never appeared in English before.

On November 27, 2020, a very successful online event was organised by the Instituto Cervantes in London to celebrate the centenary of the great Uruguayan writer, Mario Benedetti. Juan Toledo and I spoke about Benedetti’s life and work and I read my new translations of some of his poetry.

I am currently working on two novels and a book on Argentinian cinema, for which I have been interviewing many of that country’s leading directors, cinematographers and actors. Before the magnificent Cinema Museum was forced to close its doors due to the pandemic, I was curating a regular series of Argentinian films there. I very much hope to resume this season when the Cinema Museum re-opens.

I have many other projects on the go and I plan to update this blog far more regularly about these in the future, when time permits.

That is all for now. Hope you appreciated the update. Keep well – and keep safe!

Much news to report

Where do I start since I last posted on this blog?

I have been extremely busy in various areas:

I am currently completing a book on Autism and Employment.  (My previous book, A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers, has now been translated into Spanish and Italian.) I just returned from the Latitude Festival in the UK, where I spoke about autism together with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen.

I am also working on new translations from Pablo Neruda. I have given many presentations on Neruda around the world, including hosting a reading at Kings Place in London with the actress, Julie Christie, and a talk on Neruda and Borges in Buenos Aires.  Other readings include events at the Ciné Lumière and the BFI in London, where I also introduced Pablo Larraín’s new film, Neruda.  Earlier this month, I gave a presentation at the wonderful Ledbury Poetry Festival on the challenges of translating Neruda’s poetry.

Apart from these activities, I am also a film critic and, in particular, a specialist in the life and films of Michael Curtiz, the man who directed Casablanca. I have been introducing Curtiz’s films (and showing clips from his movies) at many festivalsand cinemas.

 

Reminder: Professor Simon Baron-Cohen will be online to answer your questions tomorrow – January 31, 2013

http://www.awares.org/conferences

Just a reminder that the first presenter this year in Autism Cymru’s exciting series of monthly one-day online autism conferences is Professor Simon Baron-Cohen – one of the world’s best-known and most highly respected names in autism research. Simon will be online all day tomorrow (Thursday, January 31, 2013) from 9am UK time to answer your questions. Simon’s paper is available to read right now at http://www.awares.org/conferences once you have registered. The event is open to all – so please let your friends, colleagues and networks know about this unique opportunity.

This conference is kindly sponsored by Options Group, a leading provider of specialist care, education and therapy for children, young people and adults with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, learning disabilities and complex needs.

Simon is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge, Fellow in Experimental Psychology at Trinity College, Cambridge and Co-director of the Autism Research Centre (ARC) in Cambridge. He is also Director of CLASS, the Cambridge Lifespan Asperger Syndrome Service.He is the author of many books, including: Mindblindness (MIT Press, 1995), Autism: The Facts (OUP, 1993), Teaching Children with Autism to Mindread (Wiley, 1999), and The Essential Difference : Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain (Penguin UK/Perseus, 2003). He is also the author of a DVD-ROM, Mind Reading: The interactive guide to human emotions.

For information about this and all other Awares online autism conferences, please contact me at: adam@autismcymru.org

Best wishes,

Adam Feinstein

Don’t miss your chance to put questions directly online to Professor Uta Frith on October 25, 2012

www.awares.org/conferences

Don’t miss the latest in our exciting monthly series of one-day online conferences on www.awares.org/conferences

in 2012 run by Autism Cymru – Wales’s National Charity for Autism. We are delighted that the presenter on October 25, 2012 is Professor Uta Frith,one of the world’s leading autism authorities. You will have the unique opportunity to put your questions directly to her on October 25. Please let your friends and colleagues know about this event.

Uta’s paper is online ri

ght now and she herself will be answering your questions all day from 9am (UK time) on October 25.

Uta – who divides her time between University College London and the University of Aarhus in Denmark – has pioneered much of the current research in autism and dyslexia and has written several books on these conditions. Her 2003 book, Autism: Explaining the Enigma, has been translated into many languages. In 1991, her own translation into English of Hans Asperger’s celebrated 1944 paper made waves around the globe. Uta’s research initiated the current representation of a theory of mind deficit in autism. She has also suggested that individuals with autism have “weak central coherence” and are better than typical individuals at processing details but worse at integrating information from many different sources. Throughout her career, she has been developing a neuro-cognitive approach to developmental disorders. In particular, she has investigated specific cognitive processes and their failure in autism and dyslexia. Her aim is to discover the underlying cognitive causes of these disorders and to link them to behavioural symptoms as well as to brain systems. She aims to make this research relevant to the education of people with development disorders and to contribute to a better quality of their everyday life. Uta was made an honorary Dame of the British Empire for services to clinical science in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Register right now at www.awares.org/conferences

to avoid disappointment.

To cover our costs, we are charging an entry fee of just £5 for members of Autism Cymru or £12.00 for non-members. (Membership of Autism Cymru is free at www.autism-cymru.org

). Fees are paid when you initially register for this one-day online seminar. Remember that this provides you with the opportunity to raise your questions with many of the world’s leading autism authorities.

For further details about this and all other Awares online autism conferences, please contact myself, Adam Feinstein, at: adam@autismcymru.org

BECOME A MEMBER

We take this opportunity to invite you to become a member of Autism Cymru. Membership is free for individuals.

The benefits of becoming a member include:

· Receive updates/newsletters on the Charity’s activities

· Advance notification of training, conferences and other events

· Reduced fees for admission to conferences, seminars, training (both face to face and on-line)

· The opportunity to contribute to the charity by giving your views about the future direction taken by the charity

· Information on government policy for ASD in Wales and throughout the UK

· Good practice examples

· Useful urls – youtube clips, research information including activity updates from the forthcoming Autism Policy/Research/Practice ‘Hub’ in the Wales Autism Research Centre, Cardiff University, which is being developed in collaboration with Autism Cymru and the Welsh Government

To become a member of Autism Cymru, simply go to www.autism-cymru.org

and fill out the application form there.

Please send completed applications to member@autismcymru.org

Why join Autism Cymru?

Autism Cymru is the indigenous national autism charity for Wales which, in 2001, first created the concept and then encouraged the Welsh Government to establish the world’s first national autism Strategy. We also initiated and led the partnership which brought about the Wales Autism Research Centre in Cardiff University and the UK’s first named professorial chair in autism. Together, these two initiatives alone have brought in over £12 million of new and ring-fenced funding for autism in Wales from government and research bodies over the past few years. Most of this funding of course has gone into Local Authorities and Local Health Boards to establish an infrastructure for autism and to deliver services and into research into autism. For a small Welsh charity we have achieved amazing influence and impact.

Since 2004, the charity has run the Wales Autism International Conference in Cardiff and from 2006 the annual Awares on-line conference for autism. We have provided training to over 550 schools in Wales. As a member of the Celtic Nations Autism Partnership, we work closely with our partners in Scottish Autism, Autism Northern Ireland and the Irish Society for Autism. Our work also takes place on an international stage and with European partners including Autism-Europe. For example our 2009-12 European funded Deis Cyfle project (Opportunities for people with autism in education and employment) reached out to over 5,700 people across Wales and Ireland. We work extensively with the emergency services in Wales, with our Attention Card operated by all four Welsh Police Forces, and further very significant developments across the emergency services will come into place during 2012.

The charity is also the sole national autism charity governed by those living in Wales. Autism Cymru’s Chair is Professor Bill Fraser CBE, Patron Lord Dafydd Wigley and President, Dame Stephanie Shirley. In spite of its massive achievements, the charity has small staffing numbers, no administrative staff and relies upon skilled and experienced trustees and staff to deliver its highly influential and effective programme of activities. All our staff have extensive experience of working directly people with autism and their families.

We therefore now invite you to join the Autism Cymru ‘team’ and be part of this Welsh success story by becoming a member of the charity.

Carol Gray – inventor of the celebrated Social Stories – will be online on Awares to answer your questions on September 17, 2012

www.awares.org/conferences

Carol Gray – inventor of the celebrated Social Stories to help children with autism – will be online all day on the Awares conference site (www.awares.org/conferences) to September 17, 2012.  This is a unique chance to put your questions to one of the world’s greatest autism authorities, so register right now!  Carol’s excellent paper, ‘Social Stories – An Introduction and Implications for the Future,’  is available to read immediately once you have registered.

Carol is the President of The Gray Center for Social Learning and Understanding in Grand Rapids, a non-profit organisation serving people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and those working on their behalf.  She is an internationally respected author and speaker with over 20 years’ experience as a teacher and consultant working on behalf of children and adults with ASD.  In 1991, Carol developed Social Stories™, a strategy used worldwide with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).  She has published several articles, chapters and books on topics related to the education and welfare of people with ASD, addressing challenging issues ranging from how to teach social understanding and social skills, bullying, death and dying, and loss, learning and people with ASD. Carol and The Gray Center have also been working in collaboration with Mark Shelley and the Specialminds Foundation, a non-profit organisation, to develop Storymovies™ and co-ordinating materials.  Carol is the recipient of the Barbara Lipinski Award for her international contribution to the education and welfare of people with ASD.
This is the second in a series of monthly one-day online seminars on www.awares.org/conferences in 2012 (featuring an outstanding line-up of figures from the world of autism) to be run by Autism Cymru, Wales’s National Charity for Autism. To cover our costs, we are charging an entry fee of just £5 for members of Autism Cymru (membership is free at http://www.autism-cymru.org) or £12 for non-members. Fees
are paid when you initially register for this one-day online seminar. Remember that this provides you with the opportunity to raise your questions with Carol.

Please let friends and colleagues know about this exciting event.

For further details about this and all other Awares online autism conferences, please contact Adam Feinstein at: adam@autismcymru.org

BECOME A MEMBER

We take this opportunity to invite you to become a member of Autism Cymru.Membership is free.

The benefits of becoming a member include:
.

• Receive updates/newsletters on the Charity’s activities

• Advance notification of training, conferences and other events

• Reduced fees for admission to conferences, seminars, training (both face-to-face and on-line)

• The opportunity to contribute to the charity by giving your views about the future direction taken by the charity

• Information on government policy for ASD in Wales and throughout the UK

• Good practice examples

• Useful urls – youtube clips, research information including activity updates from the forthcoming Autism Policy/Research/Practice ‘Hub’ in the Wales Autism Research Centre, Cardiff University, which is being developed in collaboration with Autism Cymru and the Welsh Government

To become a member of Autism Cymru, simply fill out application form at www.autismcymru.org
Please send completed applications to member@autismcymru.org

Why join Autism Cymru?

Autism Cymru is the indigenous national autism charity for Wales which, in 2001, first created the concept and then encouraged the Welsh Government to establish the world’s first national autism Strategy. We also initiated and led the partnership which brought about the Wales Autism Research Centre in Cardiff University and the UK’s first named professorial chair in autism. Together, these two initiatives alone have brought in over £12 million of new and ring-fenced funding for autism in Wales from government and research bodies over the past few years. Most of this funding, of course, has gone into Local Authorities and Local Health Boards to establish an infrastructure for autism and to deliver services and into research into autism. For a small Welsh charity, we have achieved amazing influence and impact.

Since 2004, the charity has run the Wales Autism International Conference in Cardiff and from 2006 the annual world Awares on-line conference for autism. We have provided training to over 550 schools in Wales. As a member of the Celtic Nations Autism Partnership, we work closely with our partners in Scottish Autism, Autism Northern Ireland and the Irish Society for Autism. Our work also takes place on an international stage and with European partners including Autism-Europe. For example, our 2009-12 European funded Deis Cyfle project (Opportunities for people with autism in education and employment) reached out to over 5,700 people across Wales and Ireland. We work extensively with the emergency services in Wales, with our Attention Card operated by all four Welsh Police Forces, and further very significant developments across the emergency services will come into place during 2012.

The charity is also the sole national autism charity governed by those living in Wales. Autism Cymru’s Chair is Professor Bill Fraser CBE; Patron Lord Dafydd Wigley and President, Dame Stephanie Shirley. In spite of its massive achievements, the charity has small staffing numbers, no administrative staff and relies upon skilled and experienced trustees and
staff to deliver its highly influential and effective programme of activities. All our staff have extensive experience of working directly people with autism and their families.

We therefore now invite you to join the Autism Cymru ‘team’ and become part of this Welsh success story by becoming a member of the charity.

Join us on Facebook & Twitter

Unique chance to put your questions directly to Professor Gary Mesibov, longtime director of Division TEACCH, next Monday, June 25, 2012

DON’T MISS THIS UNIQUE CHANCE TO PUT YOUR QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO A LEADING WORLD AUTHORITY ON AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS, PROFESSOR GARY MESIBOV, ON JUNE 25, 2012

www.awares.org/conferences

Grab your chance! Register now and make sure you don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to put your questions directly to one of the world’s greatest autism authorities, Professor Gary Mesibov.

Gary – director (until 2010) of Division TEACCH in North Carolina – is one of the top authorities on the planet in education and support for children and adults with autism. He will be online from the morning of Monday, June 25, 2012 on the Awares conference site (www.awares.org/conferences) until late that night, to receive and respond to YOUR questions. TEACCH’s internationally recognised programme has a pioneering approach to service, treatment, training, research and the education of individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

You can read Gary’s paper on Adolescents and adults with autism – written specially for this event – right now at www.awares.org/conferences once you have registered.

This is the first in a series of monthly one-day online seminars on www.awares.org/conferences in 2012 (featuring an outstanding line-up of figures from the world of autism) to be run by Autism Cymru, Wales’s National Charity for Autism. To cover our costs, we are charging an entry fee of just £5 for members of Autism Cymru or £12 for non-members. Fees
are paid when you initially register for this one-day online seminar. Remember that this provides you with the opportunity to raise your questions with Gary.

Please let friends and colleagues know about this exciting event.

For further details about this and all other Awares online autism conferences, please contact Adam Feinstein at: adam@autismcymru.org

BECOME A MEMBER

We take this opportunity to invite you to become a member of Autism Cymru.Membership is free.

The benefits of becoming a member include:
.

• Receive updates/newsletters on the Charity’s activities

• Advance notification of training, conferences and other events

• Reduced fees for admission to conferences, seminars, training (both face-to-face and on-line)

• The opportunity to contribute to the charity by giving your views about the future direction taken by the charity

• Information on government policy for ASD in Wales and throughout the UK

• Good practice examples

• Useful urls – youtube clips, research information including activity updates from the forthcoming Autism Policy/Research/Practice ‘Hub’ in the Wales Autism Research Centre, Cardiff University, which is being developed in collaboration with Autism Cymru and the Welsh Government

To become a member of Autism Cymru, simply fill out application form at www.autismcymru.org
Please send completed applications to member@autismcymru.org

Why join Autism Cymru?

Autism Cymru is the indigenous national autism charity for Wales which, in 2001, first created the concept and then encouraged the Welsh Government to establish the world’s first national autism Strategy. We also initiated and led the partnership which brought about the Wales Autism Research Centre in Cardiff University and the UK’s first named professorial chair in autism. Together, these two initiatives alone have brought in over £12 million of new and ring-fenced funding for autism in Wales from government and research bodies over the past few years. Most of this funding, of course, has gone into Local Authorities and Local Health Boards to establish an infrastructure for autism and to deliver services and into research into autism. For a small Welsh charity, we have achieved amazing influence and impact.

Since 2004, the charity has run the Wales Autism International Conference in Cardiff and from 2006 the annual world Awares on-line conference for autism. We have provided training to over 550 schools in Wales. As a member of the Celtic Nations Autism Partnership, we work closely with our partners in Scottish Autism, Autism Northern Ireland and the Irish Society for Autism. Our work also takes place on an international stage and with European partners including Autism-Europe. For example, our 2009-12 European funded Deis Cyfle project (Opportunities for people with autism in education and employment) reached out to over 5,700 people across Wales and Ireland. We work extensively with the emergency services in Wales, with our Attention Card operated by all four Welsh Police Forces, and further very significant developments across the emergency services will come into place during 2012.

The charity is also the sole national autism charity governed by those living in Wales. Autism Cymru’s Chair is Professor Bill Fraser CBE; Patron Lord Dafydd Wigley and President, Dame Stephanie Shirley. In spite of its massive achievements, the charity has small staffing numbers, no administrative staff and relies upon skilled and experienced trustees and
staff to deliver its highly influential and effective programme of activities. All our staff have extensive experience of working directly people with autism and their families.

We therefore now invite you to join the Autism Cymru ‘team’ and become part of this Welsh success story by becoming a member of the charity.

Join us on Facebook & Twitter

Don’t miss the Autistic Intelligence conference in Cambridge, UK, September 16, 2011

Autistic Intelligence presents:

Cambridge Conference on Autism

Girton College, Cambridge
September 16th, 2011

This is the Autumn conference presented by Autistic Intelligence.  Please note that tickets for this conference are strictly limited to 110 by the size of the venue and that therefore will sell out quickly.

The speakers are:

Dr Wendy Lawson from Victoria, Australia is herself on the autism spectrum and has researched many topics in the autism field.  The most recent of these is on single attention in autism and its implications for learning.

Dr Luke Beardon has been working for many years in the field of autism and Asperger Syndrome.  He is now Senior Lecturer in autism at Sheffield Hallam University and author and editor of many books on living with autism.

Adam Feinstein is author of  A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers  published in 2010. This ground-breaking book which took him on a two-year tour of the world to interview many of the earliest researchers on autism, is essential reading for those who study autism or have a family member on the spectrum.

Elaine Nicholson is the founder of the not-for-profit Action for Asperger’s   She offers a counselling and emotional support service for those affected by Asperger’s Syndrome (AS).  Her style is based on a cognitive-behavioural/solution-focused method.

Barbara Jacobs is an author, academic, conference speaker and organiser.

This promises to be an exciting and informative event for those on the spectrum, their parents, and all professionals who may come into contact with people on the autism spectrum. In the light of the experience of the Torquay conference, breaks have been extended, to take account of queueing, and there will be an extra short comfort break. The programme is therefore modified as below.

Programme

The Old Hall, Girton College

8.30 – 9.00  Registration. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served in The Stanley Library

9.00 – 9.15   Welcome.  Barbara Jacobs, academic, author and co-ordinator of Autistic Intelligence.

9.15 – 10.05  Adam Feinstein – The Pioneers. What did Kanner and Asperger teach us?

10.05 – 10.15  Short comfort break for chatter, toilets and leg-stretching.

10.15 – 11.00 Elaine Nicholson – Counselling and the autism spectrum – what works?

11.00 – 11.25  Break with tea, coffee and biscuits in The Stanley Library

11.25 – 12.55  Wendy Lawson – Attention in Autistic Spectrum Conditions

12.55 – 2.15  Buffet lunch in the Great Hall

2.15 – 3.45  Luke Beardon – Myths about autism

3.45 – 4.10  Break with tea, coffee and biscuits in The Stanley Library

4.10 – 4.55  Barbara Jacobs  – presenting filmed highlights of  Tony Attwood’s and Michelle Garnett’s presentation in Torquay. This is a 45 minute presentation on the challenging behaviours presented by different aspects of autism spectrum conditions, and strategies to handle these.

4.55 – 5.35  Panel. The speakers will take questions from delegates.

The conference will end at approximately 5.40

Please note that teaching assistants have the same delegate rate as parents, and that voluntary charity workers should describe themselves as Unwaged but should name the charity they volunteer for.

ALSO could parents note that if you are unwaged YOURSELF, you should book as Unwaged rather than Parent. This is VERY IMPORTANT.

For more details and to book, please go to:          http://www.autisticintelligence.org/1/conferences

A History of Autism: My Conversations with the Pioneers

Adam Feinstein will be giving the lunchtime lecture at the Royal Society in London at 1 pm  on March 25, 2011. In this talk,  Feinstein will describe two fascinating journeys of discovery: his travels around the world for his new book, speaking to the key pioneers in the history of autism – including close colleagues and relatives of Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger – to investigate how the concept of the condition has evolved over the past 75 years; and his own remarkable personal voyage of understanding through his autistic son, Johnny. All welcome – it’s free!

http://royalsociety.org/lunchtime-lectures-spring-2011/

I’m giving keynote address on history of autism at NAS conference, March 1, 2011

Hello all,

 

Just to let you know that I will be giving the keynote address (together with Lorna Wing) on The History of Autism: My Conversations with the Pioneers, at the NAS Professional Conference in Manchester, UK, on March 1, 2011

Adam Feinstein

Autism Cymru fourth international autism conference, to take place in Cardiff, Wales, June 21-22, 2011

Here’s a message from my Autism Cymru colleague, Jennie Thomas, about our  fourth international conference, which is taking place at the Town Hall in Cardiff, Wales (UK), on June 21 and 22, 2011. It’s going to be a terrific event, with the likes of Temple Grandin coming over to speak:

Please find below some short snippets of information to whet your appetites for our 4th International Autism Conference on 21st and 22nd June, 2011. There is a fantastic line-up.

Please forward to anyone you feel will find this conference of interest.This conference is worth 10 CPD points for public health professionals and 2 days towards PRTL for the social care professionals.

Dr Temple Grandin is the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. major television programs, such as the BBC special “The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow”. Dr.Grandin didn’t talk until she was three and a half years old, communicating her frustration instead by screaming, peeping, and humming. In 1950, she was diagnosed with autism and her parents were told she should be institutionalized. She tells her story of “groping her way from the far side of darkness” in her book Emergence: Labelled Autistic, a book which stunned the world because, until its publication, most professionals and parents assumed that an autism diagnosis was virtuallya death sentence to achievement or productivity in life. The film of her life, Temple Grandin, has won a whole string of awards recently and is up for several Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards.

Dr Brenda Smith Myles is an associate professor at the University of Kansas. She writes and speaks internationally on Asperger Syndrome and autism. Her recent books include Asperger Syndrome and Sensory Issues: Practical Solutions for Making Sense of the World, and Asperger Syndrome and Difficult Moments: Practical Solutions for Tantrums, Rage and Meltdowns

Dr Sally J. Rogers is a developmental psychologist and a Professor of Psychiatry at the M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California Davis. She is the principal investigator of several autism research projects. In addition to research, she is also a clinician, providing evaluation, treatment, and consultation to children and adults with autism and their families. The intervention model that she developed with her colleagues at University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre – the Denver Model – is internationally known. In the last ten years, she has worked closely with public school districts to incorporate best practices in autism into inclusive educational programmes for children with autism.

Professor Tony Charmanâ?Ts main research interest is the investigation of early social cognitive development in children with autism and the clinical application of this work via screening, epidemiological, intervention and ‘at risk’ studies. He is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and works in a clinic at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust where he works in a diagnostic service for children with complex neuro developmental conditions.

Final words from Dr. Tony Attwood, world renowned expert on autism spectrum disorders: “Temple Grandin is my hero. She has my vote for the person who has provided the greatest advance in our understanding of autism this century.”

For more information, please contact:

Jennie Thomas

Event Manager

Autism Cymru

Cardiff

jennie@autismcymru.org