(via the American Library Association)
The American Library Association is offering a two-part workshop (totaling three hours), “Serving Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder”, on Wednesday, March 15, and Wednesday, March 22. Both sessions will take place from 1:30 to 3:00 PM CST. The facilitator is Dr. Lesley S. J. Farmer, a professor at California State University (CSU) Long Beach whose research interests include data analytics. An overview of the workshop is below.
Autism is now one of the most commonly diagnosed serious developmental disabilities, and the number of children identified as autistic continues to grow. In this workshop, Dr. Lesley Farmer will take you through the basics of autism, explaining the forms the condition can take and how diagnosed children tend to be unique.
You will learn the library-specific challenges of working with this population, as well as best practices for both interacting with the children one-on-one and making the library environment more friendly. You will learn about resources and instructional strategies for serving this population.
The workshop will cover the following specific topics.
- identifying youth with ASD and understanding their developmental challenges
- making your library environment comfortable for youth with ASD
- strategies for successful one-on-one interaction
- understanding the print and digital resources available to librarians
For more information, including registration instructions, go here.