Parent Advice Videos

Director on the board for Comox Valley Child Development and a community Scout leader, Sam is a passionate advocate for inclusion and recognizing a child's abilities. A parent of two Autistic children and spouse of an Autistic partner Sam enjoys sharing her families many talents and gifts with the community as well as food to neighbours from their micro farm.

Rosemary Thomson is a mom to two boys, an eighteen-year-old son with autism and ADHD and a sixteen-year-old son with ADHD.  She was diagnosed with ADHD herself two years ago in her 50’s.  Parenting children with neurodiversity has been both rewarding and challenging.  When not parenting, Rosemary can be found conducting the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and Opera Kelowna.  A new documentary titled Shiny Objects: The Conductor with ADHD was made about her recent ADHD diagnosis.  Rosemary is committed to advocacy and to working for a world in which all diversities are accepted and celebrated.

Shayna Kershaw was born and raised in Richmond, BC, but now calls Kelowna home. She is a stay-at-home mom to her three autistic children and a writer. She has been a writer as long as she can remember and uses her words to reach people. She also completed a bachelor’s degree at SFU in English and psychology. Since her son was diagnosed in March 2020, after being misdiagnosed several years prior and subsequently, her two daughters and herself, she has found educating people on what autism truly is to be very important. She has helped many people see autism in a new light and hopes to reach more. Though she is relatively new to the Autistic world, she wants to leave her mark on it, for the better. When not writing or running around with her children, Shayna loves to bake for her family, read fantasy novels, and watch hockey games (go Canucks!).

Lake Country, Kelowna BC

Lindsay is a proud mama of 3 children, two of them with autism and other diverse abilities. She is an Early Childhood Educator and Behavioural Interventionist. Lindsay enjoys focusing her lived and learned experiences on helping children with diverse needs be and feel their best. Lindsay advocates within her community and school district to help increase awareness and meet the diverse needs of every learner. Lindsay also volunteers as a resource parent with the Family Support Institute, providing peer-to-peer support for families with diverse children. Through life experience, Lindsay has seen the gaps in various societal systems, and has become passionate about bringing equity to those who need it most, including the beautifully diverse population of the autism community.

Cecilia is a parent of 2 children diagnosed with autism.  She is always trying to find opportunities for her children to be able to participate in an inclusive and meaningful way.  She believes in equality for all individuals and wants to continue to spend her time on projects that focus on acceptance, safety, opportunity and true inclusion for the neurodiverse community.  Cecilia has participated in workshops to help support families of Autistic people.  She has also taken many autism training courses and continues to learn strategies on how to better support her children.  She is creative and has been known to create original learning materials to help her own children with their learning at school and home.

Lower Mainland, BC

Prince Rupert, BC

Christine is a mom to a teenager living with Autism. She is a teacher in Prince Rupert, B.C. Christine is a strong advocate for strength-based learning in schools and to find the balance in raising a youngster on the spectrum. Christine and her son spend lots of time in the hockey arena and she is an advocate for inclusion in all settings.