CPAD Corner (May 2014)

11 May 2014

CPAD Alhambra Headquarter:

Pilot Self Advocacy Group - “Chinese SAGE” - After exploring and planning with parents in Fall 2013, Dr. Barbara Wheeler of USC University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, helped CPAD LA Chapter launched the first Pilot Self-Advocacy Group for 12 youth and young adults, Chinese SAGE (Chinese Self-Advocacy Group Empowered).  Dr. Wheeler noted that there are cultural barriers contributing to the lack of representation of Asian self-advocates in the public level, and wants to help minority communities develop self-advocacy groups. The purpose of this group is to enable special needs youth and adults to learn to speak up for themselves appropriately, making decisions, understand their rights and responsibilities, and working with others within a culturally relevant manner. After four meetings, the group, through voting by members, now has a name - Chinese Self-Advocacy Group Empowered - short for Chinese SAGE (per Dr. Wheeler SAGE means Wise). Hopefully through this group, our young ladies and gentlemen will learn to speak up for themselves ... 

CPAD Orange County Chapter:

3/15/2014, CPAD Orange County Chapter – Dr. Belinda Kuo and Dr. Derek Tong gave us a talk in “How Vision Impacts Behavior and Academic Performance”.  Vision is vital to how we learn and process information.  When a child has ASD or other developmental disabilities, they often also have eye coordination and eye tracking problems that interfere with their ability to maintain eye contact, read and learn. Seeing the letters on the eye chart (20/20) is just one of 17 visual skills required for learning. Most children don’t know how to tell us they have trouble seeing, so parents need to know the signs to watch for and observe them closely.  Dr. Kuo and Dr. Tong discussed the different resources to help our children, including how to provide the best visual support at home and other available vision interventions.  Dr. Kuo can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Dr. Tong can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

4/19/2014 CPAD Orange County Chapter – Parent Angela Shen gave us a talk on “Estate Planning and Trusts”.  She discussed living trust, will, advance health care directive, and pecial needs trust in detail.   Ms. Shen also pointed out the importance of preparing a life plan/continuity of care plan for our special needs children.  It should list all the detailed information required for someone to provide care for our children in case we are no longer available.  Now that we are armed with this information, Ms. Shen urged us to take action, plan and prepare for our children’s future.  Angela can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To view Corner article, please open the following PDF file:  CPAD 5-14 Corner