“Rainbowland Autism Services (RAS) is a modern, innovative and energetic organisation that demonstrates its passion for helping families living with autism through its dynamic services and commitment to global autism awareness. RAS strives to advocate for the human rights of families and promote community awareness and inclusion at every opportunity."
Kelly Green is the mother of a very sweet almost 12 year old non-verbal autistic boy. She is super excited to ANNOUNCE the creation of a very special website!!...AutismHWY.com!! At AutismHWY.com people that are living on and around the spectrum can log~on and seek out friendships with like-minded individuals. Please, take a look at their Promo Video here on their Youtube channel! http://www.youtube.com/user/autismhwy
AutismHWY.com provides FREE MEMBERSHIPS! Affording you the space to share your thoughts, photos and videos with friends you enjoy. There are fun games to play and a forum to reach out to others on issues you choose. Articles and Event submissions will be continually coming in to keep everyone informed and up to date on our the interesting and ever-evolving A.S.D. world!!
Kelly began working on AutismHWY.com way back in April of 2009. A lot of time, thought and effort has been put in to making it a fun, beautiful and informative environment for everyone to create their own FUN, friendship network!! Click here to read more about that!
Raise money for Rainbowland to support the autism awareness campaign 'Autism Rainbow Day', Family Support Group 'Rainbowland Play Time', online support and other important Rainbowland services;
Raise awareness for autism;
Receive a T-Shirt & Hat (colour of your choice);
HAVE A FUN DAY OUT
We are extremely grateful to our sponsors who have enabled us to provide our team members with colourful shirts and caps to wear on the day.Ours sponsors are Adelaide Compounding & Wellness Consultants (Priceline Pharmacy at Firle) and Badge (Offices in Adelaide, Brisbane & Perth).
Our three children were all diagnosed as having an autism spectrum disorder in July 2007. Kristie, who was 8 at the time, was diagnosed with a Asperger’s Syndrome. Our twin sons, Jacob and Aaron, were diagnosed with autism one week shy of their 3rd birthday.
Rainbow Play Time
Shortly following the diagnosis, Shane and I vowed to help support families through the whole process as we intently believed that it didn’t have to be as difficult for others as it was for us. This vow lead to the inception of our family support group, Rainbowland Play Timein March 2009. With a focus on family inclusion and support, this group runs once a month on a Sunday, has no age limits and welcomes the entire family and their support networks to attend for a gold coin donation.
Rainbowland Play Time has been a gift not just to the families who attend, but to our family. We have made some wonderful friends and been witness to some fabulous milestones experienced by the children and their families. My favourite moments have been when children ride a bike for the first time at Play Time. The delight on the face of the child and their parents is so precious and makes it all so worthwhile.
Into the political arena...
Shane & I were fortunate enough to be selected for a meeting with the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, at the Federal Cabinet Meeting & Public Forum held on 28th July 2009. We raised issues pertaining to the inaccessibility of the newly implemented early intervention funding from the Helping Children with Autism initiative, the crisis and inequities for children with autism within the education systems around the country and the struggles faced by families. To our surprise, we were also granted an impromptu meeting with the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children Services, Bill Shorten.
Rainbowland Autism Services...
Rainbowland Autism Services Inc. was incorporated in November 2009 and granted charity status. A board, comprising of 6 members was established. The incorporation of the organisation will ensure much greater opportunities for the families it supports.
Autism Rainbow Day...
After a family discussion in the kitchen regarding the lack of autism awareness within the community and how more awareness would greatly benefit families and society at large, Autism Rainbow Day was born. On 30th April this year, the inaugural Autism Rainbow Day was held, with 15,000 international members on the dedicated Facebook cause. The day was very uplifting and positive for those who participated and it was wonderful to see people greeting others with a “Happy Autism Rainbow Day”.
I have received some wonderful feedback from educators about how they now have a much greater appreciation of what autism is and how inspired they are when learning about the obstacles that need to be overcome for people on the spectrum to become functioning members of society. Our daughter’s Year 6 class teacher initiated meaningful discussions about autism throughout the week in the lead-up up to Autism Rainbow Day and Kristie’s life and achievements were celebrated by her peers. What has been really touching is how some young students from the school have since approached me in the court yard to talk about Autism Rainbow Day. I also got quite emotional when I saw pictures of the children wearing their special masks on the big screen at the school assembly. Autism Rainbow Daywill be held on Friday 29th April in 2011.
A Tribute...
On 13th May this year, Tony Zappia – Federal Member for Makin paid tribute to the work we are doing through Rainbowland Play Time and Autism Rainbow Day. It was such an honour for us that he dedicated his entire Parliamentary Speech to our work.
In his speech, Tony says:
“In Australia autism is estimated to affect one in every 160 Australian children and around 30,000 Australian families. The estimated cost of autism to the Australian community is around $7 billion per annum. The social impacts on and costs to the children and those 30,000 families in the form of learning difficulties, limited social opportunities for the children and very high rates of parental depression and separation are immeasurable. There is no cure for autism but providing the right kind of early intervention can be very beneficial for children and, in turn, ultimately saves millions of dollars in costs later on.”
He then went on to say:
“Speech therapy, early intervention, occupational therapy and home modifications all help, but for the families they come at a cost, as does the destruction to the school life of the children, which raises an additional concern. Many schools are simply unprepared; they do not have the resources or the expertise to deal with children with autism. In that respect, autism-specific preschools such as that in Brisbane are a terrific start.”
Tony has been such a wonderful support to our organisation and is the Patron of Rainbowland Play Time. Through his work, he is also advocating for all families living with autism in Australia.
Our goal...
Rainbowland Autism Services strives to provide support services for the entire family. When you support the network of people who are the main influence in a child’s life, you are directly supporting the child. We also provide support to families of children with developmental delay. Too often these families don’t have access to support services in the absence of an ASD diagnosis. We continue to work assiduously in expanding our support services and generating awareness about autism at a global level through Autism Rainbow Day.
RAS has a YouTube channel where various videos are posted for autism awareness and advocacy. The channel videos also provide an insight into how we are raising our children who are all on the autism spectrum.
Today we uploaded videos of our sons, Jacob and Aaron, who at 4 years of age experienced the joy and spirit of Christmas for the first time, while playing dress up with their sister Kristie. Up until Christmas 2008, they didn't appear to be interested in the presents and certainly didn't understand what the day was all about.
The concept of Santa wasn't clear to them until Christmas 2009, where they finally understood that Santa brings children gifts on Christmas morning and you have loads of fun opening them.
AUSTRALIAN'S DESERVE IMMEDIATE ACTION FOR AUTISM!! We will be letting the major polical parties know how important the 'autism vote' is and how many people are affected by their decisions in this area. It is far reaching... not just the person themselves, but their parents, friends, relatives, therapists, health professionals, teachers, etc, etc.
You can help by joining the Facebook Cause or writing to your local member of Parliament.
Our children are worth investing in so that they have a chance at becoming a contributing member of society. With the current skills shortages and the situation worsening over time, it IS ESSENTIAL the Australian Government invest in autism or there will be generations of neglected people out of work and depedent on the Government to survive. Australia's economy can't afford for this to happen.
The main issue we will be focussing on is education. With funding for early intervention now in place and we applaud the Federal Government for this wonderful initiative, it is essential we focus on continuing support for our children. We believe that much of the early intervention funding could be wasted long term if support for children with ASD isn't provided throughout a child's school years. Children are making great progress with early intervention, only to regress when they get to school because the required support is not available. With recent studies from Melbourne's LaTrobe University stating that 1 in 100 children having an autism spectrum disorder, it is essential this education crisis is made a national priority. This is a very sad situation where way too many children are being denied the human right to an appropriate education. Our teachers also deserve much more support and education in this area.
We invite you to join the VOTE 4 AUTSIMFacebook cause and contribute your thoughts on this issue under the discussion topic (link found on right side of cause page) on the cause page.
This cause is run by Rainbowland Autism Services Inc. (RAS) & Autism Advisory Support Service (AASS)
Allison Dix, Director of Rainbowland Autism Services Inc.
Grace Fava, Director of Autism Advisory Support Services
Autism Rainbow Day 2010 was a great success. With 15,000 global members on our Facebook Cause 'Autism Rainbow Day - Global Awareness Campaign' 'Autism Rainbow Day - Global Awareness Campaign' thousands of people celebrated the day from all over the world.
We were very busy on the day visiting local supporters. We attended the Oasis Community Childcare Centre, The Office of Tony Zappia MP (Federal Member for Makin), The City of Tea Tree Gully and Modbury Hospital.
We wish to thank everyone who celebrated the day and helped spread the word about autsim awareness.
Just before Autism Rainbow Day on Friday 30th April 2010, we launched our new website. Our website address is www.rainbowlandautismservices.com. Please pay us a visit.
Many of you are probably aware by now that April is Autism Awareness Month. My contribution to building awareness is on the topic of bullying.
Bullying and children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
For children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) bullying can be an issue that crops up more often than their peers. The main reason for this is the difficulties they may have with social problem-solving and interpreting the emotions or intent of others in social situations.
For example, children with ASD can be more vulnerable to bullying because of their more literal way of seeing life. So this is something that other children may take advantage of by leading them into trouble. Or they may say nice things sarcastically – and the child with Autism is likely to miss the sarcasm, setting them up to be ridiculed.
But on the other side of things children ASDs can sometimes be seen as bullying others. As Nick Dubin explained in his great book on bullying, Asperger Syndrome and Bullying, this can be due to their need control their environment in order to feel safe or manage their anxiety. Also, due to difficulties predicting and interpreting how others may be impacted by their behaviour, they may have more difficulties avoiding behaviour seen as bullying.
Learn to be Buddies: helping families and children deal with bullying
Learn to be Buddies is a series of children’s books, resources for parents and teachers, and articles that I am writing to promote resilience and positive social skills in children of all abilities. There are several resources now available to help parents address the issue of bullying.
Who am I?
I am a special education teacher who has worked mainly in early childhood and primary school settings. At the moment I am teaching undergraduate educators about inclusion and disAbility awareness (with a focus on ability!). You can find out more by clicking here.
Dave is Brave
The first resource I have developed is a picture book that clearly, simply and explicitly addresses the issue of physical bullying. It is designed so that the pictures are realistic and focused on the facial expressions and body language of the two main characters.
Dave is Brave focuses on teaching children to stand up for themselves if they are bullying, as well as helping them learn about how aggression impacts others.
The Dave is Brave pack
This includes the book, Dave is Brave, and two disks. The first disk is a music CD and includes our song, Be Brave. Using song is a great way to help children remember things – in this case, what to do when you are bullied, and how to avoid bullying others.
This CD also includes the book read aloud, and several listening exercises so that children can interact with the book themselves. We also have a DVD of the book for the same reason.
Here is a Flickr slide show of one child’s interaction with the book. He has Autism, and as part of his daily routine reads along with the DVD of Dave is Brave. The last picture is of our meeting at my book launch.
The second disk contains a range of printable resources. The first of these is a set of Activity Plans. These provide ideas for how parents and teachers can use Dave is Brave to discuss the issue of bullying.
The other resources include a card game, board game, computer game and activity sheets that focus on building awareness of emotions, body-language, social language and how to deal with these emotions. They can also be used to develop key skills such as cutting, sorting, concentration, taking turns and so on. Bullying in Schools: What can we expect? – A booklet for parents
This is a booklet that I have written for parents to help them understand and access further information about the policies, Standards and laws that are designed to protect their children at school. It also provides some practical suggestions of what you can do to prevent, report and help deal with bullying effectively.
I also write about issues related to inclusion at www.learn2bebuddies.blogspot.com. This month, in celebration of Autism Awareness Month, I am attempting to help prevent bullying by giving parents the opportunity to tell others about their child’s strengths and challenges. The more other parents understand the uniqueness of children with ASD, the more likely they will help their children understand. And if they understand children with ASD, they are less likely to bully them due to ignorance or fear of difference.
So if you want to help, fill out the following and send it to me at amandag@learn2bebuddies.com.au so I can share your story with others.
I have a son/daughter (delete the irrelevant option) with autism and he/she is .... years old.
He/she loves......
He/she is really good at ....
He/she struggles with ....
Sometimes I, as a parent, find it hard when .....
But then I think about the special moments, like when ... (tell us about something great that has happened - an achievement, a hug, a word, a moment that has encouraged you).
By sending your completed story to me you are giving permission for it to be posted at http://www.learn2bebuddies.blogspot.com during April, 2010. Names won't be used unless you give permission, and then only first names will be used.
If you want to share a photo, you could either use a picture of your child showing their face, or one where you can't see their face... perhaps take a picture from behind as they play their favourite game. Please note that by providing a photo you are giving permission for it to be publicly displayed on the above named blog. Please do not include a photo if you do not agree to this.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
I look forward to building Autism Awareness with you.
On Friday 30th April 2010, Rainbowland Autism Services Inc. will be hosting its inaugural AUTISM RAINBOW DAY as part of its global autism awareness campaign.
On Autism Rainbow Day, we are urging businesses, schools and social groups from all over the world to help raise awareness (not money) for autism by wearing different colored T-Shirts that represent the colors of the rainbow. A one page information sheet will be available for download on our website in April 2010. We ask that in lieu of donations, people simply read the information sheet. (There will be a facility to make donations on our website for those people who would like to make a contribution towards future awareness campaigns, or you could raise money for your local autism group.)
At Rainbowland Autism Services, we believe that the lives of individuals living with autism should be respected and celebrated by the entire community. Without the amazing gifts that autistic people give to the world, we would not have the same level of innovation and creativity we have today. People with autism deserve the respect and support of their communities to help them achieve their potential, and where possible, live meaningful and independent lives.
We also feel strongly about the lack of support and essential services many people living with autism and their families experience on a daily basis. Parents and carers are more times than not pushed to the limits trying to manage the medical complications that can present in their child with autism. All too many carers are so badly sleep deprived that it is equivalent to torture, while at the same time living lives of social isolation because the general public are quick to judge a child with autism’s perceived ‘bad’ behavior because they understand nothing or very little about the condition.
With some recent studies suggesting that as many as 1 in 64 have autism and others using figures like 1 in 160, the situation is clear….. something has to be done NOW. Much work MUST be done to help young people with autism reach their potential, autistic adults have meaningful lives that are not in isolation from the community and to help families cope with the often extreme demands that having a child with autism places on them, through no fault of the child.
As the parent of three children on the autism spectrum, I am clear in my mind about this...... The parents/carers of children with autism love their children unconditionally, and for who they are regardless of the daily challenges. People with autism don’t want to be cured, but want to be accepted and recognized by the community at large for their individual gifts, talents and the contributions they could and do make to society. The parents/carers are left to resolve the medical problems associated with autism, when their plight should be supported by much better public services, which includes medical professionals who can recognize and appropriately TREAT the adverse medical symptoms of autism in a child. And lastly….. every child with autism deserves the human right to an appropriate education.
With the right amount of autism awareness, we can start turning the current situation around. So, we need your help to make Autism Rainbow Day a global success. Help us by spreading the word, and getting prepared to participate on Autism Rainbow Day.
HAPPY RAINBOWS,
Allison Dix Director Rainbowland Autism Services Inc.
AutismHWY.com provides FREE MEMBERSHIPS! Affording you the space to share your thoughts, photos and videos with friends you enjoy. There are fun games to play and a forum to reach out to others on issues you choose. Articles and Event submissions will be continually coming in to keep everyone informed and up to date on our the interesting and ever-evolving A.S.D. world!! 
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