The 2024 Family & Scientific Conference is just around the corner, starting in two weeks in Orlando, Florida! Registrations for virtual attendance close on April 3rd.
The conference will start on Wednesday, April 3rd, with registration and a meet and greet reception for all attendees. Thursday’s schedule includes scientific presentations, lunch, and then breakout sessions. There will be a choice of four sessions, two per hour. These can be attended in-person and virtually. Below is a summary of each session.
Breakout Sessions
Dads Group: A casual get-together of BBSOAS dads. It will be a time to share the ups and downs of raising a child(ren) with a rare syndrome in a judgement-free zone and an important reminder that they are not alone. Dads’ emotions often take a back seat when raising a child with a disability and this one-hour group will provide an outlet and a reminder that they are not alone. The goal is that each dad will walk away with the beginnings of new friendships that will continue beyond the conference. This in-person and hybrid group will be facilitated by board members and BBSOAS dads, Jeff Thelen and Tim Coughlin.
Cortical Visual Impairment 101 + Resources, Tips and Accommodations: This session will be facilitated by Katia Roda, board member and mom. Attendees will learn the 10 characteristics of CVI, and how it may relate to their child. They will learn about resources (and share theirs as well) for low-vision/CVI as well as tips and accommodations for the home and school.
Navigating the Maze of U.S. Disability Benefits, Resources and Services facilitated by Eric Jorgenson of True North Disability Planning: (For U.S. residents or those interested in moving to the U.S.) “I made a promise to myself to do what I could to prevent other families from experiencing what I lived through. Totally unaware of resources or knowledge of what I should be doing, what I should already have done, and what I could expect in the future. This led to me starting a career in Financial Services, offering special needs financial planning to families like mine. It didn’t fill the void, so I started Special Needs Navigator in 2017. I wanted to help families answer more generic questions, and when needed or desired, serve as a guide through the process. In some situations, this means I do nothing more than offering a referral to a more qualified resource. In others, it could take the form of me being directly involved in helping families transition to their new “normal”.”
Communication: Facilitated by Carlie and Ashlee, board members and moms. In this session, we will share resources and tips for successful and meaningful communication, no matter where your child is on the spectrum of communication (verbal, partially verbal, non-verbal), no matter how old they are or where you live in the world. We will cover topics including AAC, PECS, high-tech and low-tech methods of communication as well as tips for strengthening verbal communication.
Supported Languages for Translation
This year’s conference will be available for translation in multiple languages. Here is a list of supported languages for translation.
- Arabic
- Cantonese
- Chinese (Traditional)
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Czech
- Danish
- Dutch
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French (Canada)
- French (France)
- German
- Hindi
- Hungarian
- Indonesian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Malay
- Persian
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Romanian
- Russian
- Tagalog
- Tamil
- Telugu
- Thai
- Turkish
- Ukrainian
- Vietnamese
- Bengali
- Greek
- Hebrew
- Norwegian
- Welsh
