Comments from Participants

“Michelle’s workshops are upbeat, well-organized and incredibly informative. Her blend of humor, real-life stories and factual information keeps everyone alert and engaged throughout the workshop. The food was fabulous and lunch proved to be a wonderful opportunity to meet and speak with other parents and professionals.”
Jane Bindl Oi, a parent

You will find below typical comments attendees would make after attending Michelle's conference. These anonymous ones have been gathered at the Spokane, WA conference in 2003.

• This was an outstanding presentation and new ideas.
• Michelle’s ability to talk from the perspective of working in the trenches is very appreciated. I’ve come away with new information as well as therapy ideas I can implement tomorrow. She’s a natural presenter. Her humor and willingness to disclose personal antecdotes made it easy to assimilate new information.
  Objectives met very well! Very functional, useful, purposeful information!
• Wonderful presenter. Kept my interest for 2 full days!
• Excellent handouts and books! Great job giving me more vocabulary to advocate for these students.
• Great conference! I’ve learned a lot of useful information that I will be taking back to my therapy room!
• One of the most useful, enjoyable in-services I have attended.
• Very pertinent information.
• Used examples, videos to make points!
• Thank you for including out of district people!
• I have several kids on caseload for whom this applies. I can take ideas home to use today!
• The presentation was balanced with a variety of strategies.
• Great speaker! Good ideas for assessment and teaching how to think with your eyes.
• I went away with a far greater understanding of “autism spectrum” and how to begin to work with them, and help others to realize the adverse impact on educational performance.
  The videos and handouts were excellent and well organized and matched the presentation.
• This is one of the best 2 day in-services I’ve ever attended. Michelle is an extremely good presenter, animated, expressive, well organized and knowledgeable. Her theoretical understanding has actually grown out of her experience and her many examples made it very real. I also like the fact that she has worked in public education.
• Great presentation. Wonderful speaker. She was wonderful to listen to. The videos were a great prop and helped make the visual to auditory link.
• Michelle was entertaining and easy to listen to. I would definitely recommend her to others.
• Excellent workshop, good food and nice facility.
  Michelle is an excellent speaker. I enjoyed her humor and the content of the presentation was valuable and very thought provoking.
• I like that he is an opinionated fighter for kids.
• It gives exact things to do to analyze what to do to work with kids with ASD in the social-cognitive area.
• Michelle did an outstanding job in presenting new and obvious ways of working with these kiddos. Her actual case studies were an added bonus – they made it more real! Outstanding job!
• Michelle was so very interesting. What a valuable resource provider. I would be interested in her summer camp offerings.
  Michelle is the most interesting and effective presenter I have seen in years. I hope she comes back and I can’t wait to read her books.
• Providing a book was excellent and the handouts were easy to use and follow.
  The use of real life stories made the information relevant and interesting. Also, the use of humor was beneficial.
  The ILAUGH strategies will provide an excellent framework for teaching social skills.
• Video tapes and stories of clients resembled children I my own practice. Watching and listening to her diagnosis techniques were definite “ah ha!” moments as were the therapy techniques that followed.
• Strategies provided will be immediately useful in my classroom.
  Excellent clinical examples.
• Honest and comprehensive answers. Thank you for giving us a new perspective in a difficult area. Excellent presenter!!
  Handouts and presentation were comprehensive. Workbook will be an extremely useful resource.
• Video tapes provided valuable illustrations of case studies discussed. Excellent workshop! Thank you.
  I’m planning on networking with Michelle re: talking to a parent with Asperger’s about his child. It has been a very useful conference to help me know strategies about how to talk with this parent.
• Practical approach – provided lots of ideas for way to explain and implement sound cognitive programs in my schools.
  Michelle knows her stuff and be able to transfer this knowledge in a way that enables us to use the information come Monday morning.
• WOW! Great ideas! I can now begin an assessment with confidence. Thank you.
• Outstanding visual and written aids. Michelle was very empowering – thank you!
• I definitely have a better understanding of thinking of my students. I will immediately begin using techniques in my classroom. Great handouts – I loved the book! I’m very interested in the subject. New perspective for many colleagues.
• She was VERY knowledgeable – too many examples to list. The ILAUGH is a great teaching strategy. She showed she was “thinking about us” with her eyes. Great presenter – stories very effective. Great power points and videos.
  I needed all this – thank you.
• Just the right amount of expertise and openness. I appreciate your concrete self confidence/opinions backed by experience.
• Excellent workshop! Wonderful information that I can start using on Monday – thanks!
• This session highly valuable and applicable to social workers in schools, such as myself, as well as SLPs.
• Fluid and well paced presentation. Knowledgeable with many examples.
  Just so complete in the presentation, relevant materials and great explanations.
  Michelle was very thorough and the use of video, power-point, etc. kept it interesting.
• I’m a parent and am looking for any info on Asperger’s that I can find – this presenter had lots of great ideas, suggestions, realistic expectations that I will use – also very hopeful without glossing over the problems. Great visuals.
• She’s a pioneer so I loved her anecdotal stories which really conveyed her intuitive understanding of these kids. She’s funny, well organized (good handouts), easy to follow, passionate about her work, and it showed.
• Very personable. No theory – practical therapy techniques and assessment ideas.
  Good video clips.
• This was one of the best presentations that I’ve attended. Michelle was organized, articulate and really knows her stuff! It was clear to me that she sure cares about kids – wonderful – time well spent!
• Useful evaluation tools when we have been struggling with the formal assessments vs. informal (non-standardized)
• Excellent workshop. One of the best workshops I’ve been to in a long time. Hope the SLPs put on another workshop next year!
• Loved you sense of humor. You’re great
• This is one of the best in-services I’ve attended on working with autism/Asperger’s. She actually taught us how to use strategies on something that is talked about (pragmatic, social communication delays) but often not addressed in a teaching context. Excellent workshop!
• I have ASD students on my caseload who will benefit from the information I learned at this workshop.
• The presenter has developed a very well organized framework for assessing and treating individuals with high functioning autism/Asperger’s Syndrome.