SNAPS (Special Needs Autism Parent Support)

SNAPS (Special Needs Autism Parent Support) If you've met one child with autism, you've met one child with autism.

05/16/2019

SNAPS Families, our May SNAPS meeting will be postponed until next Thursday, 5/23/19. We will meet next week from 6-7:30 at the Christian County Learning Center for our last meeting of the school year. Please let me know if you plan to attend next week so we can plan for food and childcare. Thank you.

04/17/2019

This is a reminder that SNAPS (Special Needs Autism Parent Support) will have our regularly scheduled 3rd Thursday monthly meeting on Thursday, April 18th, from 6-7:30 PM at the Christian County Learning Center.

SNAPS has been an active support group in the Hopkinsville area for 11 years. It is facilitated by me, Janet Godsey, a special education teacher consultant for Christian County Public Schools. We meet on the 3rd Thursday of each month during the school year, August-May. Free childcare is provided by trained CCPS staff. Please PM to reserve childcare a day or two ahead of time so we can arrange for enough childcare providers. We eat pizza, we discuss autism related topics, and we form friendships. SNAPS meetings are open to Christian County parents, private school parents, and parents from nearby counties. Participants have children from 2-adulthood. Most are parents of an individual with autism, but some are grandparents, teachers, paraeducators, bus drivers, etc. What we have in common is a desire to become educated about autism related topics.

April is Autism Awareness Month. Many call it Autism Acceptance Month. Whichever you call it, we plan to celebrate our loved ones with a special cake and a program from Michelle Antle, Field Training Coordinator from the Kentucky Autism Training Center. Michelle will be leading the discussion: "Our Growing Kids: Friendship, Body Changes, and Puberty, Oh My!"

Please join us! Also, please shoot me a text, PM, or email letting me know how many plan to attend so I can plan for enough food.

Thanks,
Janet

01/17/2019

Hi Everyone! Janet here...We will have our 3rd Thursday SNAPS meeting tomorrow night, Thursday, 1/17/2019 at the Christian County Learning Center. The heat is working for now! 🤞

Please let me know if you plan to attend and if you will need childcare so we can plan for enough pizza and childcare providers.

Hope to see you there. I've missed you!

12/13/2018

UPDATE: Due to heating problems with the building, SNAPS is cancelled for Thursday night. If the heat is still out in January, we will plan for an alternate location. Thanks for your understanding.

12/12/2018

This is a reminder that in December, our regularly scheduled 3rd Thursday meeting will be held a week early because of the school break. We will meet tomorrow night (Thursday, 12/13/18) at the Christian County Learning Center from 6-7:30. Please let me know if you plan to attend or will need childcare. See you then!

Tonight’s SNAPS (Special Needs Autism Parent Support) meeting marked 10 years for our group. We started on the 3rd Thur...
04/20/2018

Tonight’s SNAPS (Special Needs Autism Parent Support) meeting marked 10 years for our group. We started on the 3rd Thursday of April in 2008 in the library at Holiday Elementary School. I hope I don’t leave anyone out, but I’d like to take an opportunity to thank many people that supported our group through the years with logistics, resources, professional and moral support, programming, and childcare: Michelle Ladd, Patty Grable, Karen Shields, Brooke Stinson, Al Mullen, Risha Francis Jones, Cindy Rickard Hardison, Sherida Gentry, Michelle Antle, Laura Ferguson, Debbie Lorence, Aubrey Mae Durbin, Lynnea Fletcher Jellison, Teresa Cravens Craft, Beverly Campbell, Roy Douget, Arne Seeger, Christy Calhoun Seeger, Emily Griffey, Peyton Hughes, Houston Ray, Caroline Heltsley, Erin Reid, StephanieLee Stamper Harton, Andrea Hartley, Dennis Blanchard, Guzman Rusty, and Jaime Loftus. Thank you!

And SNAPS parents, I don’t want to violate confidentiality by naming you, but I appreciate you so much. I love our discussions and our fun times. Please keep coming. And if you haven’t been in a while, we’d love to see you on the 3rd Thursday in May!

04/19/2018

SNAPS Family, we are having our regular 3rd Thursday meeting tomorrow night from 6-7:30 at the Christian County Learning Center (old CCMS). Since April is Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month, we will have a special cake and door prizes. If you haven’t been to SNAPS in a while, this is a perfect opportunity to catch up with everyone. I will be sharing a brief update on recent legislative efforts and research. The rest of the time is ours to celebrate amazing kids. The kids will join us for cake. Please let me know if you plan to attend so I can order enough pizza. I also need to know as soon as possible about your childcare needs. Hope to see you there!

01/17/2018

Just a reminder, if Christian County Schools are closed, SNAPS does not meet. Those of you who join us from other school systems, please watch for school closings for Christian Co. to determine if we will meet Thursday night. Stay warm! Thanks ~ Janet

11/14/2017

Our next SNAPS meeting will be this Thursday night, November 16th, from 6-7:30 at the Christian County Learning Center. Please let Janet know if you can attend and if you will need childcare. Hope to see you there!

03/29/2017

Checking in from the Social Thinking Conference in St. Louis!

For my peeps and parents in education, for the next few days, I'll be posting some "take home points" from the conference.

#1- The pinnacle of early childhood social development is to head to kindergarten with the ability to learn as part of a group, understanding how to follow "the group plan" and how and when it is appropriate to follow their own individual plans.

#2- Neurotypical babies are born into the world hard wired for social interaction, which is refined by face to face interactions. They are born into a world that has increasingly less opportunity for play and more SCREEN to face interactions. That interferes with learning to be a "part of the group". As we take away play, we decrease opportunities to learn problem solving and flexibility skills.

#3 - There is a great myth that individuals with autism lack empathy and are not interested in connecting with others. They do want to connect, they just lack the skill set to do it.

#4 Students with social language impairments can often dissect how interactions went wrong after the fact, but not in real time, while it's happening.

#5- When we are distracted by our anxiety, our capacity for working memory and perspective taking is diminished. Our working memory helps us remember details about the context framing behavioral expectations in that moment. We lose 20-30 IQ points in a moment of anxiety. Anxiety and learning are incompatible.

03/16/2017

Exciting opportunity for SNAPS families! Don't forget tomorrow night at our regular 3rd Thursday meeting, Laura Ferguson from the Kentucky Autism Training Center will join us to talk about ABA. What is the science of applied behavior analysis (ABA)? What does ABA look like in school, home, and clinical settings? You will likely recognize that many "tried and true" parenting and teaching strategies have a basis in ABA. Laura is a Field Training Coordinator for the Kentucky Autism Training Center and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). She is an engaging speaker with a wealth of information to share. Join us at the Christian County Learning Center from 6-7:30. If you have not already reserved childcare, call, text, or comment. Hope to see you there! Janet

Address

210 Glass Avenue
Hopkinsville, KY
42240

Telephone

+12708877400

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