Autistic conferences

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I am on a mailing list for the Asperger's association of New England (AANE)

I am invited to several conferences each year through the mailing list.

I don't know about anyone else here, but the last place I want to go to is a conference.

Is it more for the doctors and clinicians?

Conferences can be helpful, schizoid, even if you're not a professional. I went to the Jody Acford Spirit Conference last summer and Ethan Eisendorfer had a great seminar on relaxation techniques. And the annual conference last weekend had Temple Grandin speaking on the Autistic Brain. It was interesting to see her in person and hear the neurological differences the scans found in her brain vs. NT brains. And also hear her opinion about what parents should do to help their children with Asperger's.

I don't know the percentages, but there were quite a few individuals with Asperger's at both conferences, maybe more at the Jody Acford conference. They mostly seemed to be under thirty, but it's hard for me to tell with middle aged people and above if they have Asperger's. I think it's because they've learned to act more NT in public. Either that, or fewer older Aspies go or there are fewer because older people are less likely to be diagnosed and seek out conferences to go to.

Some of AANEs conferences are more for professionals, some are more for autistic people. I personally, find going to their conferences absolutely worthwhile. This last one I didn't like their location, I had a really hard time with lunch, but the one over the summer provided lunch for us, which fixed that problem (of having lunch being overwhelming and too hard to deal with).

I've been to 4 of them since summer 2011 I think. Missed one I wanted to go to last year. Made it to both this year