Helping ASD youth become independent adults.
At Autistry Studios we help teens and adults with Autism, Asperger's and other learning differences become successfully independent by leveraging their interests and talents while creating a community.
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Aug | ||||||
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |||||
Posted By Dan Swearingen on March 29, 2010
I have an RSS news feed from Dark Roasted Blend going and they often have great project inspirations.
This morning’s was Utterly Irresistible Robot Sculptures –pictures of really amazing robot sculptures.
Posted By Dan Swearingen on March 28, 2010
We have been asked to do a more “summer day-camp” kind of thing for our teenagers this summer so we’re trying a couple two-week-five-days-a-week intensive camps. See the Summer 2010 page for details.
Stay tuned: Our late-teen/young adults will have a different program and we’ll keep our older folks going all summer.
Posted By Dan Swearingen on March 26, 2010
We’ve been avoiding corn in our household since 2005 when our son started refusing corn foods and I found I had day-after migraine headaches whenever we had corn in our meals. Like we often do, we went EXTREME and also banned high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS).
There have been rumors and anecdotal evidence that HFCS was not good for you but many argue back that HFCS cannot be any worse than common sugar. However, a Princeton study released this week indicates that there is much to be concerned about HFCS in your diet: increased weight gain per calorie eaten, increased circulating triglyceride levels, etc.
At Autistry Studios meals we try to avoid serving HFCS soft drinks and we are increasingly pushing water and home-made sodas made with sparkling water + fruit juice.
Shameless self-promotion follows:
Want some great exercise? Join us at our spin-a-thon fundraiser on Sunday April 25.
Posted By Janet Lawson, MFT on March 25, 2010
As many of you have pointed out, it has been over a month since the last Autistry Newsletter. What have we been up to? Lots of things!
Please join us for our first fundraiser – the Spin-a-Thon. This will be held on Sunday April 25th from 10am to 3pm. You can sign up for an hour or more of great exercise on stationary bikes (elliptical machines and treadmills are also available). The event is hosted by Michael Lopez at his wonderful gym – Body Image located at 25 Reed Boulevard in Mill Valley (just across the street from Janet’s office!).
The current workshops are just amazing. Lots of wonderful projects.
Friday College Support and Build Stuff with Dan: Kris and Sarah have been studying hard and doing great in school. Both of them have joined the Alpha Gamma Sigma honor society. Kris continues to work on his tank diorama and Sarah has two bits of velcro to attach to the dogbed and it will be ready for Hugo. Corey is building a model of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine. He is also working here as a workshop assistant. Ross is designing a robot and learning Java programming. Hard to keep up with this group!
Saturday Film Stuff with Nate: We are all embarking on new projects. Steven and Devon are working together on an animated short film featuring their characters talking to each other. It is a great mixing of styles and promises to be a great little piece. Andrew is taking his Rush Limbaugh theme to a new level – the Casa Rush – the Road Side Diner. This is a very imaginative diorama reminiscent of the Doggie Diner, The Brown Derby, Paul Bunyan Cafe and other classic American eateries.
Sunday Build Stuff with Dan: Sawyer has joined the Sunday group. He is creating a diorama based on a role-playing game he is developing. The game world is very detailed, complex and quite wonderful. Ryan’s trains are running on the switch track layout so his wiring works! He is now adding balast to the track, landscape detail and structures. Ian has created a series of copper wire figures in Tae Kwon Do poses for his dojo. He plans to cover them with clay so that each figure is wearing a traditional martial arts uniform – but I like them just the way they are!
Tuesday Build Stuff with Dan: The Tuesday folks are becoming quite the culinary connoisseurs. We are experimenting with the gluten free/dairy free/vegetarian class menu. So far the quiche and biscuits are the most popular (although this week’s Snickerdoodles were a big hit). Rinny has now screen tested most of the important pieces for her short film promo for Sweet Wishes From Oz and is ready to move into production. Erik is building a model inspired by the Sausalito passenger station on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in the 1920’s or 1930’s. Breton’s Elf World is becoming a thing of true beauty – very detailed with lots of depth. He discovered that loose leaf tea makes a great ground cover – who would have guessed?
The summer 2010 schedule will be posted very soon. We will be doing a couple of 2-week immersive workshops (Monday – Friday). And a 1-week life skills camp. We’re just working out the details!
Our Spring resolution is to post newsletters more often! To see more pictures of the workshops visit the Autistry Photo Gallery.
-Janet, Dan, Nate, and AJ
Posted By Dan Swearingen on March 11, 2010
Ian and Michael Lopez
Please join us at the first Autistry Studios fundraiser – a Spin-a-Thon graciously hosted by Michael Lopez at his Body Image Personal Fitness Center.
Info: (see flyer for more information)
The funds raised will be used in our Opportunity Fund which allows us to offer services on a sliding scale to lower income families.
Sunday April 25, 2010
Five one-hour spin sessions: 10am – 3pm
Spin for one hour — or five!
Donate while you sweat:
Five 1-hour Spin Sessions beginning at 10am (Treadmills and ellipticals are also available!)
Donations:
Adults: $40/per hour
Kids (13 – 18): $20 per hour
Make payment to Autistry Studios, Inc.
A Federal 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
Space is limited – reservations are highly recommended!
To reserve your bike (or treadmill) call Janet: (415) 945-9788
Or email: Janet@AutistryStudios.com
And – check out the short film about Autistry Studios by Bay School senior Chelsea Mattoon: http://www.autistrystudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/03/a-small-movie-about-autistry-studios/
Let’s Spin!
Location:
Body Image Personal Fitness Center
23 Reed Blvd.
Mill Valley, CA 94941
View Larger Map
Posted By Dan Swearingen on March 4, 2010
Chelsea Mattoon has been filming our workshops for MONTHS and has made a wonderful short video documentary about Autistry Studios.
Available in HD at YouTube 
Posted By Janet Lawson, MFT on February 20, 2010
I hope you are all enjoying the break and are rested and ready to return this week for more Autistry fun! We are certainly looking forward to seeing you all back.
We found several sets of photos to upload so the photo galleries have been updated.
We had a great time at the Tommy Castro concert benefiting the Ryder Foundation. Corey, Kris, Sarah, Janet, Kitty and Diane danced to some fabulous blues tunes. All agreed that we need to do more outings. So, let’s think about excursions, events and adventures that might be cool for us to do together: movies, concerts, museums, biking/hiking, etc. There are endless possibilities very close to home.
Fanime 2010 in San Jose at the end of May: We sent out information about the cosplay costuming workshop and a group trip to the Fanime convention. Please let us know as soon as you can if you would like to do this. We need to get everyone registered for the workshop and/or the convention as well as figure out the transportation. Email us for more info.
Marin Autism Collaborative Annual Meeting: Saturday March 6th, San Rafael. Dr David Amaral, Director of Research at UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute will be the keynote speaker. He is a great speaker with lots of information. (see flyer for more details)
Janet and Matt Tarver-Walquist will be hosting the Transition Years break-out session at the MAC meeting and we encourage all our Autistry families to attend. We are inviting school personnel, families and service providers to come together to discuss how we can support our ASD children not just in their transition out of high school but throughout their lives.
Temple Grandin at the Matrix Author Luncheon: We are putting together Autistry Studios tables for this event. If you would like to sit with us please email Janet soon.
Other news: there is an AMAZING pollen dump happening and our whole neighborhood is covered in yellow/green pollen.
The biggest news: the doorbell is fixed!
See you all soon! ~ Janet, Dan, Nate, and AJ
Posted By Janet Lawson, MFT on February 1, 2010
It has been far too long since the last newsletter and my only excuse is that we have been very, very busy. The Autistry team is working hard to put in place all the necessary (and boring) business procedures that will allow us to expand our program. But enough of that and on to the important stuff – workshop news! (Oh, Chelsea began editing her documentary about Autistry and should have it ready to show by March!)
Friday College Support and Build Stuff with Dan: We were all very happy to have Sarah rejoin the group. She is finishing up the dog bed she designed for her puppy. Phoebe has finished the columns, the figures and the base for the Ramses II diorama and is putting all the pieces together now. Kris is assembling a multi-piece tank. And, Corey is designing a new project – The Yellow Brick Road. Special note: Both Kris and Sarah made the Honor Roll at College of Marin – big congratulations!!
Saturday Film Stuff with Nate: Wow – all 3 film projects are finished and posted on YouTube. Andrew did a fabulous parody of Rush Limbaugh using Rush’s own words (hey, it is tough to sound more Rush than Rush). Devon completed her mini-documentary on Steven. We were all very proud of how she dealt with the seemingly endless music copyright issues. In the end, she found some public domain music which, though not as perfect as her first choices, added a great soundtrack to the piece. Steven finished Part 2 of his Bupim Epic – and a big thank you to his brother Danny for the voice over! All three of these films were written and directed by the students themselves – a huge achievement.
*Andrew’s Rush to Judgment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNhea0Zn-w
*Devon’s Interview with Steven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbo12Io7gsQ
*Steven’s Bupim’s Quest II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht2332fV550
Sunday Build Stuff with Dan: Ryan has finished his science project and is now devoting his time to his Switching Yard. The tracks are all laid down and he is now soldering the wires so that he can run the trains remotely. Ian is nearly finished with the Dojo. He and AJ are making lots of Kung Fu Fighters out of clay that they will use to stage scenes and create a stop-motion animated short film. It was snowing pink foam on Sunday as Paul rasped the Halo helmet rounding out the edges – it looks great!
Tuesday Build Stuff with Dan: The Tuesday class is just getting started and we are looking forward to creating some awesome projects. Rinny will be working on a stop-motion animated short announcing the publication of her latest novel, Sweet Wishes From Oz. She did a practice piece last week to learn the process. It was so cool we posted it on YouTube too! (It is very, very short – like 4 seconds). Breton is putting the finishing touches on Elf World – a project with lots of loving detail.
To see more photos from the classes check out the Photo Gallery Page!
See you all this weekend!
Janet, Dan, Nate, and AJ
Posted By Dan Swearingen on January 2, 2010
We have been Gluten-Free Casein-Free (GF-CF) around our house for over ten years. For us it was a no-brainer. After only a few days of trial a few benefits were immediately apparent:
Over the next few months more benefits became apparent:
Looking back over the years we can see other benefits:
On countless occasions parents ask us about “doing the diet” and relate that they were not able to do the diet themselves because “it was too hard.”
I’m going to say something really bluntly:
Having an ASD child is HARD.
Planning your diet so it does not have wheat guten or dairy protein is TRIVIAL by comparison.
I do not think the GF-CF diet works for everybody or is needed by everybody. However, if you or your child need a GF-CF diet the benefits are such that it is simply negligent to never even seriously try it just because it feels like too much effort.
Additionally there is a growing body of research showing the serious health problems you risk if you or your children need a gluten free diet but do not get one.
Dr. Mark Hyman MD writes regularly at the Huffington Post and today posted a very good article with several great data points about the dangers of gluten if someone’s body is sensitive to it.
Mark Hyman, Huffington Post “Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You”
Posted By Dan Swearingen on January 1, 2010
A CycleKart is a small four wheeled car made to look like one of the classic racing sports cars of the 1920’s or 1930’s.
Power is specified as a 200 cc Honda one-cylider engine. Wheels are based on 17″ x 2″ motorcycle rims. Total car weight must be under 250 lbs.
I love the look and these would be great building projects. If we built some using 50 cc engines they would fall into the strange regulation world of “mopeds” and perhaps be made some sort of street legal.
Resources:
