Cynthia Singleton

Parent Coach, Speaker & Advocate
Empowering you to be an unstoppable advocate for your child

 

 Powerhouse advocate & mama bear warrior

Cynthia has walked the autism path for over two decades with her son from the days when he didn’t speak to today where he graduated his Associates Degree at HCC in general studies and is working in accounting.  The road has been anything but smooth.   Both glorious peaks and  sad valleys.

She traveled this path with other families.  She worked for and with several agencies so she saw a wide variety of families and how their kiddos experienced autism, and she knows the Texas states service system very well.

Two steps forward, one step back as we went from ABA to private school to home school to public school  to private placement to residential school to transition program to community college.  Therapies, interventions, diets, and supplements.  We’ve tried a lot. Some were fantastic.  Some a waste of time.

As a parent coach, she will help you map out your child’s Autism RoadMap for 1) a new diagnosis of autism or 2) making a successful transition from school to adulthood

As an Advocate, she’s helped more than two hundred families get the services their child needs.  To reach more parents, she’s created comprehensive on-line special ed parent training:  the Empowered Parent Advocate Bootcamp

Her Experience

She began advocating for her own son with autism nearly twenty years ago.   She didn’t just want better services.  She wanted better systems.  She worked to transform bad policy into better policy in a variety of systems for people with autism by:

Training graduate students from 12 areas about family needs

as  the founding Family Faculty for the LoneStar LEND (Leadership in Education for Neurodevelopmental Disabilities) in the Texas Medical Center.

Responding to Houston area family needs

as the Houston Advisory Chair for the now dissolved  Texas Council on Autism & PDD

Advocating for better coordination between in the fractured mental health service system

while a Board Member on the Governing Board for Systems of Hope, a systems of care project for Harris County funded by SAMHSA

Leading the grassroots effort in 2006 and 2008 that passed the Texas state insurance reform for children with autism.

Texas was the second state in the US to pass insurance reform.  Our success inspired advocates in other states to work towards insurance reform in their states and at the federal level.

Writing the Texas Autism Supplement

as one of 17 public members of the 35 member committee.  Find out more about the Texas Autism Supplement.

Training 600+ members of the Houston Police Department Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Officers

in autism risk management

Her Awards & Recognition

2018 Recognized by ARC of Texas as Mom Advocate of Note

2008 Empowerment Award for Excellence in Promotion of Self-Advocacy,

from the Texas Chapter of the American Association of Intellectual & Developmental Disability

2007 Senate
Resolution No. 1211; from the Texas State Senate

A resolution recognizing and honoring her “outstanding work” on the bills which reformed Texas state insurance requirements for persons with autism which has resulted in families across the state of Texas.

Her Approach

It’s about relationship, communication, and knowing your rights.

She teaches her clients how to cultivate relationships that will truly help them obtain what their child needs.  It takes a team.  You need experts on your team who can listen and work with you to meet your child’s needs.

She coaches her clients to communicate clearly and effectively.  Speak from the heart, get to the point, and choose your battles.  Most people  really do want to help, they often just don’t know what they don’t know.  That’s why you have to.

She has heard school staffers make at least one illegal and/or incorrect comment  in every IEP/ARD meeting that she’s attended in over 18 years of advocating, .  You, as a  parent, must know your rights in order to know whether what you’re being told by school staff at an IEP/ARD meeting is true.

Testimonials

“Wow, is all I can say! She definitely opened our eyes and the School’s to a lack of progress on his goals and the poorly written Behavior Intervention Plan.  As a result of the ARD, the school will be implementing more services, using additional teaching methods to make sure he makes progress on his goals, and performing another Functional Behavior Analysis.”
Leslie from Mount Belview

“She empowered me to better advocate for my child & inspired me to attend more workshops to continue learning to help my child in this journey.”
Sandy from Kingwood

“You are always so full of resources.”
Erica from Houston

“If you can, or know someone who can, benefit from anything Cynthia offers, please do not hesitate to sign up for her classes. You will not be disappointed. You will walk away the wiser, and more empowered for it. Let her be your beacon, as she has been for me”
Hilda from the Woodlands

Say Yes to Yourself and

Your Child Today!

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