This is a computer-generated drawing by a young man with autism named Harry Sandhu. It was given to me as a gift after I did a keynote address about the importance of inclusive education in Surrey, BC in 2004.  It depicts Harry and some of his teachers and classmates standing in front of the high school from which he graduated. I love this picture for its rich colours and its precise detail, as well as for the fact that Harry produced it because he had the support of teachers and others who looked past his label to recognize his strengths and help him capitalize on them.

Pat Mirenda

Supporting the Development of Children and Youth with Autism and Developmental Disabilities in Inclusive Settings

“Students with autism and other developmental disabilities are among those at greatest risk in today’s schools. These are the students who no one wants in the classroom. These are the students who either sit in the back of the room with a classroom assistant doing separate work from the rest of the class or spend the majority of the school day in a resource room doing busy work. These are the students who, many teachers believe, either can’t or won’t learn. My primary goal is to convince teachers otherwise, by providing them with empirically-grounded strategies and techniques that will enable them to help these students learn and develop.”

Mirenda’s research is focused in the development of (a) augmentative and alternative communication techniques for students who have severe speech and physical impairments and are unable to speak or write; (b) systematic strategies for modifying curricula for students with significant intellectual disabilities; and (c) functional assessment and positive behaviour support strategies for supporting students with significant behavioral challenges. Her current research projects seek to describe the distinct developmental pathways of outcomes in young children with autism spectrum disorders and to identify the inter-relationships among critical variables associated with better outcomes.

For information about augmentative and alternative communication, go to http://aac.unl.edu/

For information about autism research in Canada, go to http://www.cairn-site.com/forum.html