Families for Effective Autism Treatment – North Texas
Invites you for a special viewing of the film
Recovered:
Journeys Through the Autism Spectrum and Back
January 29, 2009
6:00 to 8:00 pm
$15.00 per person for conference attendees
$25.00 per person if not attending conference
Wine & Hors d'oeuvres Served
The 60 minute film will start promptly at 6:30.
Jonathan Tarbox, PhD, BCBA-D, Director of Research and Development for the Center for Autism and Related Disorders
will be present to answer questions after the film.
www.recoveredautism.com
The Story
Recovered: Journeys Through the Autism Spectrum and Back is an amazing must-see documentary about four children who have recovered from the Autism Spectrum.
The film presents documentation of therapy sessions along with interviews of the children who are now teenagers, their parents, therapists and the founder/executive director of CARD. Their combined stories illuminate both their struggles and triumphs while providing hope to families of newly diagnosed children that recovery is indeed possible. Each child received services from the Center for Autism and Related Disorders Inc.(CARD), including assessments, supervision, parent/teacher training and one-on-one behavioral therapy.
This 2 disc set includes over 60 minutes of Special Features designed to educate families who are navigating the world of autism and autism treatment.
Four families driven by hope…
One organization helped them overcome the odds.
About the project
Producer & Executive Director, Doreen Granpeesheh, PhD, BCBA
In 1993, I began to videotape some of my children in therapy in order to produce a training video for parents of children with Autism. However, the influx of new patients was rapidly increasing and projects such as this were put on hold. In 2003, I revisited the unedited videos to see if I could complete the project.
As I looked at these tapes, I realized it would be valuable to locate the children and see how they were doing ten years later. Ten children had been videotaped, and only six of these could now be found. Five of the six children had recovered!
Four of those families agreed to participate in this project.
Many people don’t believe it is possible to recover from Autism. Others find it offensive that we even suggest recovery as a positive outcome for the disorder.
I have seen many children recover from Autism. These children overcome the difficulties presented by Autism. They develop the skills that were deficient and they succeed academically, learn to communicate appropriately, find friends and lead happy healthy lives.
When a child no longer meets the criteria for a diagnosis on the Autism Spectrum, when he scores within the normal range on tests of intelligence, language and adaptive functioning…we confidently use the term “recovered”.
Over the past few years, there is a growing concern amongst adults with Asperger’s that recovery as an end goal may be depriving them of their rights, or altering their personalities in a way that is not desired or acceptable. It has never been our desire or intention to alter any person’s skills in a detrimental fashion.
All personalities change over the course of development. We all learn skills as we grow older and these new skills change the way we interact with and learn from the world.
Our intention in providing proof of Recovery and in identifying a course of action toward that goal is only to bring hope and determination to those families who feel it is in the best interest of their child to learn new skills in order to better access the rewards of life.
We feel every child has the right to be healthy, to be taught the skills they need to interact appropriately with their peers and to be allowed to demonstrate their strengths, instead of fight their weaknesses. We feel confident we have found the path to make this a reality.
Doreen Granpeesheh, PhD, BCBA
