PIQUA — Judy Cordonnier will present a seminar on living with autism on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at 6 p.m. in Room 406 at Edison State Community College.

Cordonnier is a specialist in learning disabilities with degrees from Wright State University and University of Dayton. She is the mother of an adult son with autism.

In the seminar, she will address the following topics:

• What is autism?

• How do I recognize the characteristics in my own child or students?

• What can I do to help that person be most successful?

She will also tell her family’s story.

Further, she will share sources of help and indicate what she’s learned that she wishes she’d known when her child was an infant, such as triggers and how to minimize them, the need for a support system, and overcoming the fears she had about making a mistake in raising her child.

Accompanying Cordonnier will be Karen Leugers, coordinator of SALT (School to Adult Life Transitions) at the Mercer County Board of Developmental Disabilities, who will have displays of materials that audience members can take to learn more about autism.

SALT “provides information, along with resources and guidance, to families of children and students with developmental disabilities to help navigate the transition from school to adult life and beyond.”

Sponsored by the Edison State Diversity Committee, the seminar is designed to educate and promote inclusion. With about one in 44 children born today with autism, this is an important subject that merits more attention and research than the disability has been granted in the past.

There is no fee to attend the workshop, and reservations are not required. For additional information, email Dr. Vivian Blevins at [email protected].