Workshop: Serving children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

CHICAGO — ALA Editions has brought back the popular workshop Serving Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with Lesley S. J. Farmer. This two-part - 90 minutes each - workshop is hosted live at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursdays, March 19 and 26, 2015.

Autism is now the second most commonly diagnosed serious developmental disability, and the number of children identified as autistic continues to grow.  In this workshop, Dr. Lesley Farmer will take you through the basics of autism, explaining the forms the condition can take and how diagnosed children tend to be unique.

You will learn the library-specific challenges of working with this population, as well as best practices for both interacting with the children one on one and making the library environment, as a whole, more friendly. You will learn about resources and instructional strategies for serving this population.

Topics include:

• identifying youth with ASD and understanding their developmental challenges;
• making your library environment comfortable for youth with ASD;
• strategies for successful one-on-one interaction;
• understanding the print and digital resources available to librarians.

About the Instructor:
Dr. Lesley S. J. Farmer, professor at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), coordinates the Librarianship Program. She earned her MS in library science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and received her doctorate in adult education from Temple University. Farmer has worked as a librarian in K–12 school settings, as well as in public, special and academic libraries. She is incoming chair of the Education Section of the Special Libraries Association, and she is the International Association of School Librarianship’s vice president of association relations.

Registration for this ALA Editions Workshop is available on the ALA Store. You can purchase registration at both individual and group rates.

ALA Editions Workshops are designed to give you and your staff the opportunity to participate in a hands-on learning experience that will help you make the best technology decisions for your library.

ALA Editions publishes resources used worldwide by tens of thousands of library and information professionals to improve programs, build on best practices, develop leadership, and for personal professional development. ALA authors and developers are leaders in their fields, and their content is published in a growing range of print and electronic formats. Contact ALA Editions at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5843 or editionscoursehelp@ala.org.

ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness, and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide.