Ymkje Wideman-van der Laan

Ymkje Wideman-van der Laan is an author, public speaker, and Certified Autism Resource Specialist from the Netherlands. After working abroad as a teacher and humanitarian for 25 years, she moved to the US in 2006 to assume the care of her then 6-month-old grandson, Logan. There were signs of autism at an early age, and the diagnosis became official in 2009. She has been his advocate and passionate about promoting autism awareness and acceptance ever since. Logan is the inspiration behind the Autism Is...? series of children’s books she initially wrote for him and later published. Ymkje currently lives in California with her now 15-year-old grandson, and besides writing, presents autism training workshops for parents, caregivers, teachers, and early childhood educators. You can learn more about her and her work at www.autism-is.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AutismIs, and on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ymkje-wideman/26/247/80b/.