Partner Spotlight: Ron Oberleitner
CEO of Caring Technologies/ TalkAutism, Idaho![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090122142936im_/http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/actearly/images/RonandRobby.jpg)
Ron Oberleitner and his family trusted their
instincts about his son Robby. At around 15 months
of age, Robby gradually started to lose skills he
once had. He began avoiding eye contact, preferred
to lie under his crib, and lost just about all his
speech. “Over the next 22 months, we took Robby to
many different doctors and specialists. They ruled
out numerous disorders and diseases, but only after
enduring sleepless nights, tantrums, and overall
confusion in our family, it was a reluctant
psychologist who finally helped us confirm Robby had
autism,” said Ron.
Since Robby’s diagnosis, Ron has dedicated his
career to helping other families who are also living
with autism. Ron’s skill and his passion is to use
medical and emerging technologies to help families
get quick access to specialty care for their child
with autism and to gain needed services even if
specialty resources are far away.
Using his expertise in this area, he created
TalkAutism.com, a communications network. Autism
organizations are using this network to provide free
and low cost online services such as distance
learning, professional resources, and community
discussions for families and professionals dealing
with autism. His company now makes health record
services and telehealth tools to aid families and
professionals. Shortly after creating TalkAutism,
Ron wanted to learn more about “Learn the Signs. Act
Early.” to see how he could use the campaign’s
information in his own outreach.
In 2003, Ron attended a campaign training session in
New York, where he learned about the “Learn the
Signs. Act Early.” messages and materials he could
use to educate others. “The campaign’s messages
really resonated with me. Helping educate parents
and health care professionals is very important to
help children get that early diagnosis and
intervention to help them advance their
development,” said Ron.
Ron was excited about the campaign, and in 2004, he
hosted an orientation about it in Boise, Idaho. For
Ron, this was a chance to educate a new mix of
parents, doctors, and educators on the campaign’s
messages. “It was a successful session; we discussed
developmental delays and distributed the campaign’s
flyers, posters, and informational cards,” said Ron.
To broaden his outreach, he also contacted local
media outlets, trying to spread the campaign’s
messages to parents in his community.
“For parents struggling with their children’s
developmental challenges, this campaign can help
them mobilize sooner to get the care their child
needs, while helping professionals be more aware so
they can detect and act on concerns earlier,” Ron
said. In support of this idea, the mission of Ron’s
company is to provide instruments and tools to help
families and professionals increase access to
services and continue encouraging awareness for
“Learn the Signs. Act Early.”
Ron’s advice to parents who suspect a delay is to
“question your child’s development and have the
confidence to act on your instincts.” Ron stresses
that “much can be done when a developmental delay is
detected early; the improvement can be very
significant.”
If you would like to learn more about TalkAutism
visit:
www.talkautism.org.
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