Lawrence P. Kaplan, Ph.D.
Lawrence P. Kaplan, PhD is the Founder and Chairman, Emeritus of the US Autism Association (formerly known as the US Autism & Asperger Association). He is the Author of Diagnosis Autism Now What? 10 Steps to Improve Treatment Outcomes, A Parent-Physician Team Approach. Midwest Book Review noted that Diagnosis Autism focuses upon the most difficult and challenging issues that parents and physicians have to deal with and the common situations and misunderstandings that can crop up over sensitive issues. Diagnosis Autism was published in 2005 and remains on the shelves in the Los Angeles Public Library system, among other libraries in the US after almost 20 years.
Dr. Kaplan is a parent and a caretaker of a son diagnosed with autism and co-occurring conditions that include Chronic Lyme Disease, Epileptic occurrences, Encephalomyelitis, Environmental insults, to name a few. He has over thirty years experience in helping individuals and families navigate through the challenges of autism and related disorders. He began in 1995 as the founder of Special Abilities that segued into US Autism & Asperger Association in 2005, hosting sixteen conferences throughout the US from 2006 - 2018. He produced and edited sixteen conference proceedings manuals. He developed the Four Autism Spectrum Quadrants addressing the wide range of the autism spectrum noting that individuals, regardless of where they fall within the 4 quadrants, may experience overwhelming struggles as well as extraordinary triumphs. He recruited a team of medical experts for the US Autism & Asperger Association with whom he spent hundreds of hours collaborating on testing and biomedical interventions. The areas covered many co-occurring conditions, confirmed by brain spect imaging results as well as bacterial and viral infections.
Dr. Kaplan began his work with the autism community in an unconventional fashion. His undergraduate degree was in Business Management and his Master’s Degree in Sports and Health Administration. With a background in professional and collegiate sports producing over 500 sporting events, he spent his first ten years after college in operations, promotions and marketing, with various sports teams including the Chicago Cubs Triple-A team, the Denver Avalanche professional soccer indoor team, and the Chicago Sting Soccer Club that won the 1984 North American Soccer League Championship. He was the youngest Public Relations Director in all of Professional and Collegiate sports when he was twenty-three years old with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and with the Wichita Aeros Professional Baseball team (Cubs Triple-A team).
From 1986 - 2001, Dr. Kaplan worked with the Florida Citrus Commission on the benefits of citrus as related to medical diseases that included working with the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the March of Dimes, and the National Stroke Association.
In 2001, Dr. Kaplan received his PhD in Health Sciences and Research with an emphasis on Autism Related Disorders. His dissertation, Autism Spectrum Disorders: Two Significant Quandaries Associated With The Complexity Within The Continuum, included the first study showing a significant delay in early diagnosis of individuals later diagnosed with autism, thus the child losing valuable interventions at an early age.
Dr. Kaplan enjoys astrophotography, golf, swimming, snow skiing, the mountains and the beaches, but most spending time with his wife of thirty-six years and their three adult children.
