KJ Taylor

Date: 10/16/15
Time: 8 am-5pm
Special Needs Summit Summary:
All in all, I really enjoyed and left with new knowledge from the
experience. I attended three classes, listened to a keynote speaker speech,
and visited with the vendors. The keynote speaker, Dwayne Ballen was
absolutely amazing. He discussed his family struggles, learning, and growth
with having a child with autism. He has grown to become a huge advocate
for autism. From a fathers perspective, Mr. Ballen wrote a book, Journey with
Julian, which enlightens and educates about family importance, acceptance,
and unconditional love. Julian at the age of four, was diagnosed with autism.
Mr. Ballen said he himself went through stages of grief and acceptance.
Having told that his first born son was autistic was not in his plan or vision of
the future for his family. He said it was not until he accepted that his son had
autism did he begin to build a relationship with him. Mr. Ballen also discussed
how much his wife was a huge support throughout the entire experience. She
pushed him to educate himself and try and gain a better understanding of
their son. I enjoyed this speech because he was so passionate about autism,
and you could feel his love for Julian. Mr. Ballen also stressed the importance
to figure out the child and what he loves; to place yourself in their universe.
He explained it was not until he did this through Disney animated movies
with his son. Julian loves watching Disney movies and watching the Lion King
was his favorite. One night Mr. Ballen decided to mimic a part of the movie
with Julian. This was his first connectionwith his son. Julian has now gained
publicity and became a face for autism awareness, and he loves it. He enjoys
talking with people, signing autographs, and taking pictures with his fans. I
also attended a class with Mary Jo Huff, who is an author, storyteller, and
puppeteer. This woman was so entertaining and hilarious. We laughed,
danced, sang, and practiced being a puppeteer during her workshop. She is
an early teaching artist that loves to entertain children with her stories and
dances. She showed us different ways to capture curiosity from children with
autism, and how to keep their attention during story time. Mary Jo Huff
passionately interacted with her audience, and even at the age variety kept
our attention. She also introduced us to many books she has wrote and
published. Each of her books had a physical object (puppet, toy, song, dance,
or demonstration) that went along with it. I really enjoyed this session, she is
awesome! I also attended a workshop a cognitive development and ways to
discipline a child. I found that it was very complicated and hard to
understand. There was a huge load of information on the PowerPoint that had
vocabulary I have never heard, so it was hard to grasp the concept. She
talked the entire time of the workshop, so the audience was not very
involved. I then attended a different workshop that involved women and men
that are in the Kelly Autism Program at WKU. I really enjoyed this session
because you got to hear one on one how many of these students go through

school with autism. There were four people total that spoke and answered
questions from the speaker and audience. There was one girl in particular
that was hilarious. She joked how she never does things on time, and the
Kelly Autism Program pushes her to not procrastinate. There was also a
young man that is majoring in engineering, and he talked how he never
thought he would go to college. Hearing their stories were very heart
touching and gave me a different perspective. The vendor variety was really
interesting. The conference had vendors like, therapists, nonprofit
organizations, healthcare, bookstores, and camps for children with autism. I
really recommend anyone working in the field to attend this workshop. Loved
it!