Clarity in Columbus

As those who have Facebook know, I'm currently in Columbus, OH for the 2007 NATTAP/OCALI Conference, funded kindly by those wonderful people who give out the ASHA SPARC award (for those who don't understand the abbreviations: I'm at an autism conference funded by the money from a research award I got recently.)

The conference has truly been a fascinating experience. I came here wanting to find out more about autism, thinking I might do something related to it or to Asperger's or hyperlexia for a PhD topic over at Iowa when I (hopefully, if I decide to go for the PhD!) go there. I wasn't sure what exactly the conference would do for me.

Two days into it, I've gone to:
"intro to Asperger's"
"how to get typically developing preschoolers to interact with preschoolers who have autism"
"understanding the social framework of kids with autism"
"autism spectrum disorders and slp's: what asd training is needed for undergrads, grads, and professionals"
"autism and AAC"
"autism and ADHD: the connection and differences between the two"

and have learned loads that might help me in looking at past, present, and any potential future clients. But I won't bore anyone with random autism factoids. The major thing I learned from this conference is that I will not be doing an autism-related topic for my PhD. I know now from what I learned that what I had envisioned as a possible group of kids to work with for the rest of my life is not a group that exists under the spectrum, and the work that people do with kids who have autism - while eminently noble, laudable, and impressive - is not work I'd want to be doing for the rest of my life. A few clients, sure, but I'm not sure I'd want a full caseload of kids with autism.

This conclusion was somewhat surprising to me. I really expected to love the conference and be all fired up about autism and this and that. And while what I've learned is fascinating and invaluable - you won't find me specializing in ASD's in ten years.

In other news, despite a harrowing day this past Tuesday (the day I left for this conference - I've rarely been so stressed in my life as I was that day, but IT'S OVER!!!) life is going quite well. Things are moving forward, I'm getting some clarity and some leads as to where my life might go in the future, and I'm just very happy with everything :)

Well, time for me to run off - I've felt like I might be getting sick (stupid lack of sleep from 7am construction every morning!!!) lately and have been sleeping an absolute ton, so it's time for me to take advantage of my last night having absolutely nothing to wake me up at any point, and head to bed! 'Night, all!