CATS Program & Why We Love It

During our first year of Preschool with James, my husband and I were still struggling with the whole concept of our son being on the spectrum with autistic disorder, as well as what that meant and what we could do to help and support James. His teacher told us about Dr. Lorna Catford and the CATS Program at Sonoma Statue University (SSU). We decided to give a call and find out more about it and what it could do for us.

A lot, as it turns out. The Collaborative Autism Training & Support (CATS) Program reaches out to professionals who work with children and families of children on the autism spectrum, as well as the children and their families. A series of seminars are made available to the public. The speakers are professionals in the field as well as families who are dealing with autism and other special needs. Students sign up for a semester of courses, seminars, and working in the field with families who signed up to participate. As a participating parent, I was welcome to attend seminars and could use the SSU library to do some research of my own, if I wanted to.

I got very excited when I found out about this. I talked it over with my husband, who agreed, and signed us up for the next semester that Fall. Our student was wonderful. She initially took the class because it was a good schedule fit and in line with her intent to become a teacher. She already had several years of working with children in a swim program at the local YMCA.

We ended up learning from each other, and had a great time taking the kids out to the heated, indoor pool at the YMCA to get them used to the water and to get James feeling a little more in touch with his body and comfortable about being in the water. It was nice for me to get some help.

An unexpected wonderful experience was being in a room full of loving and concerned parents, talking about our kids. We just whooshed with relief to be able to talk with people who had some very similar experiences!

The End of Semester Party the students put on was AWESOME! James loved it, and actually started participating in some of the activity centers they'd set up. My daughter won a raffle and staggered home under a gigundous bag of craft supplies. I was actually out after 5pm, sharing good eats and socializing. It was a wonderful feeling.

The program gave to much to us that we'd like to give something back ... so tomorrow there will be a fundraiser for the CATS Program at the Windsor Powell's on the Town Green. If you're around, please consider downloading and printing out a flier. All day tomorrow, 3/16, when you present this flier to Powell's at the time of your purchase, 20% of what you buy will be donated to support this wonderful, community-based program.

Easter candy, gelato, Mad Libs, clucking mechanical chickens stuffed with treats ... Powell's has literally thousand of good reasons to come in and browse. The CATS Program is a great reason to buy a treat or two tomorrow.