The Help Group’s Summit 2016 – Advances and Best Practices in Autism, Learning Disabilities and ADHD is a cutting edge conference that features leading experts in basic and applied research, and evidence-based best practices in assessment, intervention and treatment. This year the event will be held on Friday, Oct. 14 and Saturday, Oct. 15 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Widely recognized for the scope, depth and caliber of its offerings, the Summit is designed for educators, clinicians, therapists and parents.

Summit chairs this year are Barbara Firestone, PhD, President & CEO of The Help Group; Peter C. Whybrow, MD, Director, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and Executive Chair, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Robert M. Bilder, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine and Chief of Medical Psychology – Neuropsychology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

The keynote speakers and their topics will include Matthew State, MD, PhD, Autism Genetics: Where are we Headed; Thomas E. Brown, PhD, The Role of Executive Functioning in Young People with ADHD and/or Asperger’s as They Transition to Post-Secondary Schooling or Workplace and Rethinking ADD/ADHD:  How It Develops, Sometimes Gets Better and Sometimes Gets Worse;  Kevin Pelphrey, PhD, Toward Understanding Girls with Autism: A Researcher and Parent Perspective and Harnessing Affinities to Gain an Understanding of Autism; and Maryanne Wolf, PhD, How the Reading Brain Reframes Our Concept of Dyslexia and Its Intervention.

Expert presenters include Anshu Batra, MD; Jason Bolton, PsyD; Xavier E. Cagigas, PhD; Ellis Crasnow, PhD; Diane M. Danis, MD, MPH; Leah Stein Duker, PhD, OTR/L; Michael Enenbach, MD; Fumiko Hoeft, MD, PhD; Claudia L. Kernan, PhD; Elizabeth Laugeson, PsyD; Mary Lawlor, ScD, OTR/L, FAOTA; Sara McCracken, PsyD, BCBA; Catherine Mogil, PsyD, Sally Ozonoff, PhD; Tanya Paparella, PhD; John Piacentini, PhD, ABPP; William Garry Sharp, PhD and Olga Solomon, PhD.

We are grateful to our media sponsors NBC4 Los Angeles, L.A. Parent and our major sponsors First 5 California and First 5 LA for their support and for helping to bring this important information to our community.

For more Summit event information, please call 818-779-5212. Program information and online registration are coming soon at www.thehelpgroup.org.