More awareness for autism today.
In celebration of World Autism Day, which was Sunday, April 2nd, a flag raising ceremony took place at the Hands TheFamilyHelpNetwork.ca building on Lakeshore Drive this afternoon.
Officials at Hands along with some families and children with autism helped raise the Autism awareness flag.
Jennifer Roussy, who is a Clinical Supervisor in the Hands Networks Intensive Behavioural Interventions program, believes autism is a challenging to diagnose and treat.
“I think the biggest misconception is that autism isn’t just one symptom, autism has a range of symptoms and every individual with autism can display things differently,” said Roussy.
“It’s finding the right treatment for each individual child and that’s what we do here at our IBI centre (Intensive Behavioural Intervention) is that we do individualized one to one therapy with kids with autism.
“Our program helps students learn how to learn and learn how to be a valued member of the school system as well. Often kids who start school prior to starting our program don’t have the necessary skills to be able to sit in a classroom and participate like typical kids and so what we do is we teach them those skill so that we are able to transition them back to school again, and for them to be successful," added Roussy.
Hands TheFamilyHelpNetwork.ca in the region is offering events that provide opportunities for parents to learn about the early signs of Autism and available community supports across the Districts of Nipissing, Parry Sound and Muskoka.
The organization is also hosting an Easter Fun event for Autism Awareness with fun for children of all ages on Saturday, April 8th at 11 a.m. at their building on Lakeshore Drive.
Families and children can enjoy Easter themed crafts, games, face painting, prizes plus, of course, an Easter Egg Hunt.
