Geneva Centre for Autism

Geneva Centre for Autism presents Angela Morris, for  an informative workshop for parents and professionals working with children who have both autism and a second disability.

Available:

Onsite

Through live webinar

Download the flyer

Location: Geneva Centre for Autism,
112 Merton St. Toronto, ON, Canada M4S2Z8

If you cannot join us in person, we are pleased to be offering this workshop via webinar from the comfort of your home or office computer.

This workshop was developed to give some insight into the challenges of helping children and adults with the dual diagnosis of autism and deafness. Autism and deafness mirror each other in the early years and this makes an accurate diagnosis very difficult at a time when parents desperately need support. Angela has based the presentation on her M.Ed. project which tells the story of her life with her deaf autistic son, Alistair. This is a story of a family grappling with the frustrations and challenges of raising a deaf child who showed no interest in communication, a child who didn't play with toys and who became obsessed with light bulbs! This is also the story of a family who gradually got to know their son and sibling and who learned the valuable lesson that it was they that needed to change! You will laugh a great deal through this presentation and, yes, shed a few tears. After hearing their story you will return home with a resolve to open your mind to possibilities and to start each day full of hope.

About the presenter:

Angela Morris is a supply teacher for the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf in Belleville, Ontario. She is the mother of four adult children – three of whom have a hearing loss. Her youngest son is both profoundly deaf and autistic. In 2009 she received her M.Ed. from Queen’s University. The project for her M.Ed. was a workbook for parents and professionals working with children who have both autism and a second disability. The workbook describes the challenges that she and her family encountered as they strived to understand their son and find the help that both he and the family needed. While studying documentation gathered over her son’s first ten years of life, Angela became very aware that many of her strongest beliefs about her son had turned out to be wrong. She decided to develop a presentation/workshop that could be used to encourage other families and professionals to always work with hope and to realize that some of their most sincere beliefs about the children in their care might just turn out to be less than accurate.