| Title | Basic PECS 2 Day Workshop | |
| Address | Portlaoise Heritage Hotel, Town Centre, Portlaoise, Ireland. | |
| Date & Start Time | 27th May 2010 09:00 | |
| Registration Opening Time | 27th May 2010 08:30 | |
| Capacity | 55 | |
| Professional fee / person | £270.00 | |
| Parent fee / person | £140.00 | |
As part of the Cottage Autism Network’s siblings programme a film camp was organised with local film maker Terence White.
It was a small group of eight with ages ranging from 11 – 14. The ethos behind this particular group was to give the older siblings of families affected by autism a chance to meet others in a similar situation and because of the small group we could include kids that are on the spectrum who could then mix with others in their age group to gain valuable social practice.
The workshop ran for four consecutive days in July during which they produced and wrote their own film. The workshop then continued for a further three Saturdays in September, during which they produced a second film which this time had been written by Terence himself based on having met the group and gotten to know their interests and strengths.
We had a great diverse group who really seemed to work well together and who responded well to Terence’s way of working. The sheer amount of work involved in film making is sometimes overlooked. For example when having to re-shoot scenes up to 12 times the process can often be very tedious. The whole workshop was a great achievement for our group and it is a great credit to them to have worked so well.
Most of the kids in the group showed great interest and talent in the different areas of film making, from the technical aspect to the acting side. Even the kids who may not have had a particular interest in film production really seemed to enjoy the company that came with the workshop.
Overall it was a very fun and positive experience for all involved. We hope to continue organising more workshops such as this in the near future.
Wednesday October 21 2009
WEXFORD'S COTTAGE Autism Network (CAN) recently received the proceeds of fundraising carried out by James and Paul O'Connor at a special presentation in Enniscorthy.
James and Paula raised €18,000 raised by running in the Oylegate Mini Marathon in June of this year. They have organised this event for the past few years and kindly donated the proceeds to Cottage Autism Network, a countywide support group for families living with autism.
On the night the CAN group also bade farewell to Occupational Therapist Claire Nicholl who had been recently employed by the group to offer occupation therapy to group members. She is wished well in her future endeavours.
A WEXFORD based couple who have offered untold support to children with autism, are the worthy recipients of the Health and Welfare People of the Year award.
Frederike Frederiks and Servaas Dodebier have dedicated their lives to giving early intervention' to children with autism, with a view to helping them move on to main streem schooling. As founders of The Cottage School, the pair employed tutors who set up individual educational programmes for children with autism, and saw immediate progress in their own children. Through their dedication the paid campaigned to have the Department of Education provide a specific autism unit, and one is now established at Scoil Mhuire.
The unrelenting grit and determination of Frederike and and Servaas has helped over 30 children in Wexford, with a 57% success rate into mainstream schooling - a statistic which is even better than the experts anticipated.
As a result the Cottage Autism Network was born and now there are more than 50 families from Wexford who are members.
Early intervention for children with autism is crucial, and the first hurdle every parent encounters is getting a diagnose. Not deterred, Servaas and some friends from Irish Autism Action climed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds to found Solas, a diagnostic centre of excellence.
People can bring their child there and have them assessed by a full team of occupational therapists, psychologists and speech therapists. The ethos behind the centre is that a diagnosis is made within six weeks. More than 26 children frm Wexford children from Wexford have been assessed and thanks to the generosity of the people of Wexford, through Autism life cycle 2007, the burden of cost was reduced for these families. For many people their home has become a home from home for other concerned parents, where a warm welcome is always offered. As one of their nominators put it Their home is a place of hope, where the abnormal and sometimes idiosyncratic nature of our special children is treated as normal and no different, and where I for one, always left happier, and full of hope and determination, knowing I wasn't alone in this one.'
