Dear Friends and Family,

This holiday season finds Parents of Autistic Children of Oregon (POAC of Oregon) in good spirits. We have managed to update our Parent Handbook (1), create an initial few lessons for parents of newly diagnosed young children (2), and design and create an Apple iPad Application to teach math facts to struggling students (3).

For 2012, we need your help to continue this work. With your donations we can:

1. Continue developing free online training materials (2)

After one month at the Boys and Girls Club, the four students helped me field test Matt Hunter's Math Fact Apple iPad Application. Attached are the results.

For the past 6 years since the inception of POAC of Oregon, we've been running the nonprofit from past experience and sheer gumption. Recently, I've discovered some help from organizations that help nonprofits: Financial Stewardship Resources, Ford Family Foundation, and the Nonprofit Association of Oregon.

The Autism Quick Assessment helps determine whether the student's skill level in basic areas are missing, early, intermediate, or advanced. This assessment is designed for a quick look at both the student and the people to work with the student including parents, therapists, consultants, or teachers. Each person to work with the student should run the Quick Assessment in order to determine who needs to pair more with the student. This will become obvious if one person can work with the student easily without inappropriate behaviors but another person elicits far more inappropriate behaviors.

This proposal is for an iPad spelling program with pre-made sets of spelling words and presented like lessons.

The spelling words are presented to the student in various ways:

1. [voice] choose letters to spell [spelling word] - student chooses letters from several bubbles containing letters with mouse or just types it out (would be good if this is settable per student

2. [voice] choose the misspelled word - list of 4 words, one of which is incorrect - use mouse or type number

3. [voice] spell [spelling word] - student types in letters

Dear Friends and Family,

Another year of school cuts have made services for children with autism particularly difficult. Classrooms are getting bigger. Early intervention services are being cut back. Schools are doing more with less.

Parents of Autistic Children of Oregon (POAC of Oregon) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps educate parents and teachers that work with children with autism. We identify research-based best practices in teaching so children with autism may lead a productive and fulfilled life.

UPDATE: Matt Hunter of Math Fact Drills has been kind enough to take this on.
This proposal is for an iPad program that allows students to practice math facts in a structured manner with appropriate error correction. Assuming 1-10 iPads in a classroom, the iPads will necessitate having multiple accounts on each iPad. Students will be assigned an iPad in order to ensure one account per student.

This program should:

* Have the ability to track student progress

Parents of Autistic Children of Oregon (POAC of Oregon) is beginning several projects. We will be updating the Parent Guide and adding service provider information into the http://autismoregon.org website. We then will be working toward an free assessment and IFSP/IEP tool. Finally, we will be designing free reading, writing, math, and science curriculum tied to the new national standards. Stay tuned for new donors, assessment ideas, and curriculum lessons.

Dear Friend,

This year will be particularly hard for parents and educators of children with autism. In Oregon, funding has been cut for direct services to children and teacher training is almost non existent. Children who used to get 6 to 8 hours of teaching a week are now down to 2 hours a week, hardly a drop in the bucket. Teachers are often expected to pay for other own trainings now.

POAC of Oregon just received its nonprofit status from the IRS. We are open for tax deductible donations. The tax exempt number is (I believe) our EIN number which is 56-2572217.