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8190 DEAR CATHY: AN OPEN DIALOGUE WITH A MOTHER AND SPECIAL NEEDS ARCHITECT

Thursday, July 9, 2015: 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Room Number: 104 (Colorado Convention Center)

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This session will provide attendees the opportunity to discuss openly daily challenges within various environments and explore real time solutions with Cathy, mother of a 23-year-old ASD son, special needs architect and Certified Autism Specialist. This session promises to provide a much needed dose of humor to a serious subject. First and foremost, Cathy is a mother and successful advocate for her 23-year-old ASD son. As a fully-funded adult, her son now enjoys the successes of full independence as defined by his abilities. She will talk about how to turn the challenges presented by raising a family that includes a child on the spectrum into successes. She will cast a vision for how your ASD child may thrive in the future. This requires a total shift in mindset to understanding that the successes in autism are experienced by recognizing that your own personal expectations must be positively realigned to your child’s capabilities. Autism is abilities…the quest is to discover the strength in your child and then utilize the environment as the third teacher to help further enable your child.

Having a perspective being an architect, with a unique talent to be able to identify emotional triggers presented by the surrounding environment and intuitively predict the outcomes, Cathy can provide simple solutions to challenges in residential, educational, vocational and social environments. From travelling tips to dining strategies, Ms. Cherry challenges the attendees to look at possible resolutions to exhausting situations in a different way. By implementing environmental strategies including moving or placing people in key locations as behavioral manipulatives, Cathy’s goal is to provide empowerments to individuals on spectrum while creating calming opportunities for the rest of the family. Hear from her how she tackled family trips…from requesting hotel floor plans prior to registering to bolding asking for everything she needed to provide for a better overall journey for her entire family. She is a problem-solver. She will identify problems and provide hard solutions.

Learning Objectives:

Discuss concerns regarding their children's or student's behaviors and strategize possible environmental solutions to address the issues
Identify strategies of g current environments to help reinforce future success and independence
Recognize that people are an environmental tool. Look honestly at autism as the whole family impacted and learn how the entire family can participate in the positive environmental outcomes rather than isolating the child

Content Area: Family and Sibling Support

Presenter:

Cathy Purple Cherry, AIA, LEED, Certified Autism Specialist
Parent, Principal Architect and Owner
Purple Cherry Architects / Purposeful Architecture

Cathy Purple Cherry, AIA, LEED AP is a leader in the design of environments for children and adults with special needs. As a Special Needs Architect, Ms. Cherry creates spaces nationally that foster thoughtful living and learning environments and inspire creativity, individuality and independence.

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