The Autism logos really are used broad based. A lot of people don’t even like the puzzle piece because it goes back to Autism Speaks. (*I will NOT get into an argument about Autism Speaks. I will say, our family does support them because when our oldest boy was completely non-verbal from birth to age 7, we applied for a grant through Autism Speaks for an iPad and it was essentially what helped us push his vocalizations with his speech therapist, using his iPad)..
Anyways, as long as they aren’t using the one that Autism Speaks does, I really don’t think they care... Also, even with the walks that Autism Speaks does, they encourage team leaders to use the puzzle pieces on their shirts... Autism Society has people use theirs also. I don’t ever see any organization telling people not to use their logo, unless it is negative situations...
As far as speakers and accreditation, sadly, there is literally places you pay and can have accreditation in anything... I will say, until they mentioned the Wego awards, I had never heard of them, nor had any specialist that we visit, heard of them.. I mean, they aren’t getting any local awards but had to fly to CA to get an award? Sadly, the National Organizations are just fighting for funding and education but sadly, sometimes those aren’t even vetted that well.. All it takes is a recommendation of someone to have someone come speak and they send out a request to have them do so, as long as the board agrees. They just offer a hotel room and either gas reimbursement or plane tickets.. I have been invited to speak at several sounding boards and conferences but have always turned down the offers. I don’t have the confidence in myself, time to organize a speech and care workers for the kids to go..
I would love to see if they did get a stabilization medication for Abbie. I won’t say “cure” because even that doesn’t always happen but they could really work more on her speech and getting her there.. I would love to see her anxiety be decreased because it seems she has a lot of anxiety due to what they put her through. They don’t give her acknowledgment to understand what is happening around her and just expect her to go with the flow, of whatever they are doing..
Also, can someone explain to me, after the school stated that they needed to start more conversations with Abbie and having her communicate with her, the first time they do, they ask her to grab her iPad? She leaves the room, twice and can’t find it and then they finally find it, once one of them gets up to look at it.. Then, instead of talking to her and getting her to answer with other communication, they expect every answer to be on her iPad.
She needs to learn that not all communication has to come through her iPad. It is great to have but she can communicate with body language, they could work on more sign-language, she could take them to things, etc.. Sigh.. I just don’t get it..