I recently visited a place called ANCA Consulting headquartered in Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada. I didn't know what to expect really. I spoke with Leonora and Charlie Collura by phone and via the Internet video phone service, Skype. Nice folks, overall. They've been consulting with families that have autistic children for almost 15 years there. I figured their knowledge of how to address some of the fears many parents have about raising autistic children would be a healthy thing for me to discover. Little did I know that I would literally come back to the states with a totally recalibrated state of mind concerning autism and how to best help autistic children, autistic adults and their families (parents included) communicate with each other.
What ANCA does is difficult to explain. That's why I'm so grateful to have gone there to experience it. It was totally necessary for me to do that. To start, the name 'ANCA' is not an acronym. It is much more personal. The 'AN' stands for Anthony, the name of Leornora and Charlie's son who has brain injuries caused by medical professionals and is confined to a wheelchair. The 'CA' stands for Caroline, their daughter who's passed away. The deeply personal nature of what ANCA stands for is (I think) the reason for the powerful results that anyone who's been involved with them seem to have. I saw video after video of success story. I saw a presentation given to school teachers and education officials with one of the children who'd been through the ANCA program and I was speechless.
I'll tell ya more tomorrow.
Peace & Love,
Michael Buckholtz
Blog on: Friday, July 31, 2009 @ 02:25 am
Can't wait Michael, sounds very interesting. : )
TELL US MORE .
I'm gonna give you a bit more on Sunday. Sorry, things have gotten quite busy for me since my visit. There are pictures of my visit at Facebook. If you wanna check it out, you can see some of my book signing pics at www.facebook.com/michaelbuckholz.
well done