Autism colloquium to host award-winning keynote speaker

By  Ali Pavlicek
Western Herald

Educators, occupational therapists, researchers and students will have the opportunity on Oct. 24 to witness a daylong colloquium focusing on autism and related topics at Western Michigan University’s Fetzer Center.
The fifth annual Barbara A. Rider Colloquium will present two speakers, a presentation on Statewide Autism Resources and Training (START), an interactive panel discussion and lunch.

This year’s keynote speaker is Wendy J. Coster, Ph.D., from Boston University, where she is the department chair of occupational therapy and rehabilitation counseling.  Coster received the Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship at the 2008 American Occupational Therapy Association conference.

“In the last five years, the average [keynote speaker] has been an Eleanor Clarke Slagle lecturer [at the Barbara A. Rider Colloquium],” Cindee Quake-Rapp, Ph.D., WMU’s department chair of occupational therapy said.
Coster specializes in assessment as the leading researcher in best evidence for practice, Quake-Rapp said.

“She’s a great introduction for the topic of autism,” Quake-Rapp said.

Other guest speakers include Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Ph.D., who will speak about “Imitation and Autism:  Mirror Neurons, Intentionality, or Motor Planning,” and Michelle Simino, who will provide information about “The START Initiative.”

Another portion of the colloquium is the panel discussion, in which therapists and parents of autistic children will be available during a session to answer questions from the audience.

“The panel discussion is a community-based approach with a broad-based spectrum [of autism],” Quake-Rapp said.  “Each panelist present represents a key aspect [of the disorder].”

The colloquium will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Friday and will end at 4 p.m.

The Barbara A. Ryder Colloquium is generally focused on occupational therapy-related topics, but the speakers are not largely occupational therapists themselves, Quake-Rapp said.

“I would encourage students to attend to expose them to something that they’re not usually given access to,” Quake-Rapp said.

About 200 people will be permitted to register for this year’s colloquium.

Since 2004, the Barbara A. Ryder Colloquium has been an endowed lectureship, meaning that an outside benefactor presents the funds to make the colloquium possible each year. However, despite the benefactor the colloquium comes with a student fee of $45 and a clinician fee of $75.

Barbara A. Ryder, for whom the colloquium is named, is a previous WMU professor, who served as the occupational therapy department chair for about 10 years, according to the colloquium’s Web site.  She had worked in the field for over 47 years and won a lifetime achievement award given by the American Occupational Therapy Association in 2003.

“The goal [of the colloquium] is to expand the body of knowledge of the topic,” Quake-Rapp said.  “There is a different topic each year, and we pick a topic that is current and of interest to educators.”

Anyone who would like to attend the colloquium can register by filling out the registration form online at www.wmich.edu/ridercolloquium.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=1593

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Oct 23 2008. Filed under Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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