Freeport Area Autism Conference inspires ‘hope’
BUFFALO TWP — Freeport Area School District invited the county to an all-day autism conference Saturday at Buffalo Elementary School.
Amiris DiPuglia, state lead for the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network and keynote speaker for the event, said there was one thing she wanted everyone to take away from the conference.
“Primarily, just that there is hope, because when we have a science with principles that can guide what we do — even if we might make mistakes — that science doesn’t fail,” she said. “So when we rely on that, we have a lot more likelihood of success.”
The conference was organized by Don Dell, the district’s special services coordinator, after attending the national conference at Penn State University last summer.
“As we were sitting there listening, I thought, ‘There’s so much valuable information,’ but it’s a four-day conference, and most of the teachers can’t go to that,” Dell said. “We can’t have all of our educational assistants go to that, parents and the community won’t be able to go — so I said, ‘Let’s bring some of the national conference back to Freeport and our area.”
As such, Dell said the more than six-hour conference was free and open to anyone in the community.
“Not just Freeport residents, I sent it to neighboring districts,” Dell said. “Anybody that wanted to come was welcome to come.”
Dell’s hope for the conference was that it would be a resource and an inspiration to educators, families and the county.
“If it would just spark a flame, interest in folks to do more research, maybe go to the national conference,” Dell said. “Maybe just, you know, if they have a student with autism themselves that they’ll just find a nugget that will help them help their students.”
The conference included presentations by DiPuglia, who helps facilitate the national conference, on behavioral science.
Her keynote speech was titled, “We Can’t Leave It Up to Chance.”
“Basically, it’s looking at the needs that these students have, the impact on their education, the impact on their families and their possibility of being independent, happy, contributing members of society,” DiPuglia said.
Additionally, she ran two breakout sessions following the presentation.
“The first session was, ‘Don’t Put The Cart Before The Horse,’” DiPuglia said. “Basically, how you teach skills in a sequence so that you’re teaching strong component skills that wind up building the base for meaningful skills in the future.”
The second session was titled “The Key to Long-Lasting Behavior Change.”
“This one was obviously on how to address challenging behavior in an effective manner for long-term behavior change,” DiPuglia said, “as opposed to doing things that may stop behavior in the moment but are not necessarily effective for long-term behavior change.”
During the final session, DiPuglia referenced her experiences with challenging behavior from her three children with autism spectrum disorders.
“Remember, we all make mistakes,” DiPuglia said. “Take note of and celebrate the small steps. Those days that you’re having hard days, remember where they were when they couldn’t do other things. Compare your child to themselves, not to others.”
The conference also featured sessions on toileting, math and reading, according to Dell, alongside a student-run cafe and a variety of booths.
“I reached out to a number of organizations and agencies, companies, and I think we had 15 different folks that came to set up an exhibit table and share information about how we can help our kids,” Dell said.
At the end of the conference, Dell said they would be asking attendees to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the event.
“If we get good feedback, I would expect them to do it again next year,” he said.
DiPuglia praised Dell not only for organizing the conference but for his and the district’s dedication to supporting students.
“He is so supportive of his instructional staff, and they are amazing and so dedicated, and that’s why they’re getting so many results,” she said.
Those results and the conference, DiPuglia said, were a reminder to parents that with the right instruction there is always hope.
“Oftentimes, not intentionally, we end up blaming students for lack of progress, and blame is never on the student,” DiPuglia said. “The student is never wrong.”
