Biography

Joseph Iller is an energetic individual with the desire to help children in the Autism Spectrum, Down Syndrome, OCD and beyond. Using multiple techniques as well as keeping updated with new research and data, it is his mission to mainstream children into society from any starting level.

Areas of strength:

Qualifications:

Experienced working with low, mid and high functioning children in the spectrum of Autism and related disorders. Fully trained and knowledgeable in ABA, RDI, TEACCH, PEC's and more. He is specialized in mainstreaming children in their schools and communities working both in a 1:1 setting as well as a group or class.

Joseph has worked with children since he was 10 years old. Living with a younger cousin who had Cerebral Palsy, he had to learn how to help and encourage her to be self sufficient. During the 1980’s most people were still not very used to seeing handicap people in public and he would always do what he could to encourage his younger cousin to try as many things as she could and stay with typical peers. At the age of 16, he took courses at the ROP Center in Orange, California that enabled him to work at after school day care centers with children ranging from ages 3-12 years old. When he was 17 he started working at a small Italian restaurant where he eventually became a manager in only one year. While training new staff he realized his passion was more in working directly with people. As he looked out on the world he thought the best group of people to work with is children. Leaving the restaurant business after three successful years, he became a fulltime teacher at Gymboree while attending community college. This sparked an entire new side of creativity for him in an environment for children to play and learn life skills. After accomplishing all possible achievements at Gymboree Joseph came across a flyer at UCI that asked for aids to work with Autistic kids. At that time, he had never heard the word Autism but gave it a chance. Trained by and working directly under one of the most knowledgeable clinic directors in California, he spent the next four years going from a Junior Therapist, to Senior Therapist to a Social Skills Group Leader. After four years Joseph left to help his wife in a marketing business she had started that had become very successful. He lasted only two months and could not stay away from his passion of helping children. Before approaching his previous employer he helped a friend that was working independently with a family and needed to leave to go to school. What started out as a three month part time job turned into a training and staffing company and has been running successfully for over the last seven years. To add to the autism support services that Joseph wanted to provide to children he added Social Hiking Action Camp, SHAC. This was an unofficial camp that they did for two days and with such good feedback decided to continue it on a regular basis. Joseph directly plans, organizes, leads and works at every camp that is scheduled. It is his hope that it will be a model for others to do the same using natural environments around the world.

As of 2006 with his wife and children in Peru, Joseph attended the University of Lima under the direct guidance of Professor Dr. Julio Salazar. As of October 15, 2008 he received his BS in Human Psychology with an emphasis in Sports and Physical Fitness. He is currently transferring this degree in the United States at the University of Hawaii.

Additional experience includes organization and implication of social services through medical camps in Peru, India, Nepal and Bolivia. While serving in these countries and studying life’s mysteries from Religions, Philosophy and Psychology, Joseph developed the concept that to connect with children and adults who have developmental delays is to connect with someone who communicates in a different language. The goal is not to see what is wrong and make it right, but rather to gain communication with the individual and honor their needs and desires, while serving to get them met.

Currently Joseph is working with Sonrisa School to serve and develop a model education and social skills situation that can be a model for the world to use in connecting with children.