Hello, hello!

Sorry I didn’t get to you yesterday; I was having technical difficulties. We had a fabulous Thursday! We were surprised to be quickly shuttled into a press conference upon arriving at the OMNI center yesterday morning. They had arranged for a TV crew and several reporters to interview us. They asked many questions about the organization and our partnership. They also asked critical questions about autism: In the states, are they educated in regular schools? Where do children with autism receive services here? Is this a real problem? Etc. It’s always interesting to see what they actually report, but their awareness level is definitely rising and they don’t seem to be as afraid to tell the truth. I’m hoping we can get a translated copy of the article.

The last day of our conference, and the conference as a whole, was a tremendous success. On the last day we had 86 people present. At the end, they delivered 82 certificates to those participants that had been present all four days. It was extraordinary. Our behavior presentation went well. I was very comfortable speaking this time and was able to be more animated and even walk around as opposed to Monday when I was afraid to leave my notes. We didn’t have much time in the afternoon to make our visual supports, but we managed to get one thing done that’s actually 6 in 1. Afterwards I trained all the teachers of Pahinets how to use the Boardmaker program USNOF purchased for them. We were able to successfully change the language to Ukrainian and now they’ll be able to make their own visuals.

We had a great debriefing session with Lubov and have already started working on ideas for next year. The head doctor joined us and we spoke in more detail about the Child Development Center. This center is incredibly important to me. This is the start of great change in the field of special education in Ukraine. If the Board approves this project and we’re able to successfully secure funding then I’ve volunteered to be the director/program manager for the Child Development Center (coordinating on behalf of USNOF). Progress is happening and it’s amazing to be apart of it.

Dianne and I were surprised at how exhausted we felt once the conference was over. We’re ready to come home and look forward to whatever R & R we can get. We had a great time visiting the baby house this morning and then doing some shopping this afternoon. The baby house always breaks my heart, but I was pleased to hear that the President of Ukraine has started a program, within the last year or so, for foster care and adoption. The government is also providing more financial support to those families that have a child with special needs and now more children are remaining with their families rather than being placed in an orphanage, therefore, the numbers are decreasing somewhat. Since this is my fourth year here I wasn’t too interested in purchasing souvenirs so I went on a hunt for wedding shoes. (They have some great shoes here)!  And I’m happy to say that on my wedding day I’ll walk down the aisle with shoes purchased in Ukraine. )

We spent a lovely evening talking to Victor over dinner. You can always count on him to make our hearts burn and practically burst with even more passion for this project. We leave Rivne early tomorrow morning and will start the long trip home. Happy Fourth of July!!!!

The last day of the conference was as successful as the first three. We started a half hour late because of the press conference (this was my first time being interviewed for Ukrainian tv — I was nervous — hopefully what I said made sense!). They asked a lot of the same questions we might have at home, for example how early can autism be identified, what is the cause, can it be treated, etc. They asked me what was the topic for today, which was challenging behaviors. I thought it was interested that they asked if that was the same in the United States. I said yes, I had done this workshop many times in the U.S. Kelly and I approached challenging behaviors using positive behavioral supports and functional analysis. This audience responded the same as audiences at home but jumping straight to the function of the behavior without specifically describing the behavior — interesting how we are so similar. We did a Make It-Take It in the afternoon using Barbara Bloomfield’s trifold. I told the audience that everytime I do this workshop in the US, someone makes the same mistake of cutting the panels apart when they need to stay together. When we finished, everyone applaued that no one in this audience made that mistake — yea!  USNOF had purchased Boardmaker for Pahinents, so all materials were in Ukrainian. We are learning — this make it-take it went much better than our last attempt! We then gave out wonderful certificates at the end. There were 86 people who attended all four days! That means we probably had 100 on that first day! When we debriefed with Lubov, it occurs to me that folks are probably ready for more intermediate level training, and not introductory. They want more detailed information on specific strategies; Olga briefly highlighted approaches such as ABA, PECS, Floortime, etc.

During the morning break, a parent came up to me and asked it I remembered her from last year — she is the head of the parent organization from other region. I did. Last year, she had a one year old baby, asked lots of questions, and was very active and outspoken. At the time, I said to one of the students, she is going to be a leader. And here she is! They want help in a region 2 hours away. I took her to speak to Jason, and I believe she is going to meet with Karen during the next trip. Exciting.

This has been a very successful conference. I was so grateful to have “found” Galina and Olga. These are two wonderful people who contacted with the audience and made the conference experience so rich. I couldn’t have asked for a better conference. Dianne