Autism

By Justin Leaf

Like many organizations, the impact of COVID-19, could be felt for the Autism SIG. Prior to COVID-19 we were about to hold elections for our remaining council and board member positions. However, those elections were delayed given the impact of COVID. Nevertheless, the council members and board members of the Autism Special Interest Group have been busy on meeting the mission and vision of the SIG. We have started to reach out to SIG members, other entities, autistic/individuals with autism to look at ways on how to positively promote ABA to the public, while also addressing some of the concerns about ABA as it relates to autistic individuals. These endeavors will hopefully result in positive change and growth for the SIG and our profession as a whole. Ultimately resulting in improved intervention for autistics/individuals diagnosed with autism.

We are hoping to continue with the productiveness in the upcoming year. One of our major goals is to create a webpage where we can disseminate valuable information to our members. A second major goal of the upcoming year is to put out monthly interviews with top professionals and/or parents on our facebook page so that our members can hear from professionals and parents on important issues. Third, we will look to hold a vote for new board members to help join in our endeavors. Fourth, we look forward to announcing awards that students and professionals can win at our annual Autism SIG meeting. Finally, we look forward to continually working closely with ABAI International and the ABAI Autism conferences. We are optimistic that engaging in all of these activities will result in the improvement of behavioral intervention for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. We hope that professionals will consider becoming members of the Autism Special Interest Group.