ABPathfinder just attended the Autism Society of America
National Autism Conference in San Diego, and we had a great experience. The
show was pretty well attended (although numbers seemed to be off a little from
past years), and ASA did a good job of getting people to the exhibit area. ASA
board members were everywhere – how many of them are there, anyway? LOL.
As usual, we had the ABPathfinder booth setup, allowing us
to show a demo of the latest version of our software to assist in Autism
therapy management. Our goal is to increase accuracy, efficiency and
information in data collection so therapists and educators can help more kids
gain skills faster.
We had a great time speaking to parents, behavior analysts
and special educators. They were eager to see new things to help kids and
adults on the Spectrum, and I think we made some excellent connections with
people.
There were some folks we had to draw into the booth, though,
and it made me think about why people attend autism conferences. If you’re
there just to hear speakers, then you’re not getting the full meaning of the
conference.
Whenever you go to a conference, be sure to check out the
exhibit hall. There are lots of nice people there. More importantly, it gives
you an opportunity to experience new things that could help your practice or
school in a friendly environment. At ASA alone, we saw a new game for improving
reaction times, a sound system for increasing concentration and a new TV
channel dedicated to Autism content to be presented on IPTV. There’s nothing to
be afraid of – no one can force you to buy anything, and you just might find
something very cool.
We love working with people in autism. We really respect and
value everyone who has devoted their lives to helping people on the Spectrum,
and we recognize the efforts you have made.
We built ABPathfinder (with the help of some great behavior analysts) specifically
to help people like you. Once we get the conversation going, we make lots of
new friends.
In the end, I’m writing this to remind people to remain open
to new possibilities, to make new friends. You never know when someone can come
along and change your outlook on things.
