Dance Program For Families With Special Needs To Be Featured At Stephanie's Day

STUDIO CITY (CBSLA.com) — A program that gives parents a chance to dance with their children with autism and see them grow will be among the dozens of organizations at Stephanie's Day, a resource fair for families with special needs.

Guidance Autism, a dance program for children and young adults with autism and other special needs, is the brain child of Kerisse Hutchinson.

"I've been dancing since I was 6 years old, and I always called dance my saving grace because it helped me a lot through my childhood," Hutchinson said. "So, I always wanted to give that gift to other children."

The program allows students and teachers to take turns being the leader of the dance, mirroring each other.

"The beauty of Guidance is that it helps you focus outwad, that you have to copy the moves, so you have to look at other people," she said.

The program has been a real breakthrough for Jaakina Harris and so many others.

"She's not just inside herself," said Jaakina's father Kivi. "She gets to look at the outside world."

For other parents like Teresa Harris, it's a relief to find such a class for her daughter.

"I've searched for nine years," Harris said of Guidance Autism. "I am seeing her grow here."

Stephanie's Day takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the CBS Studios in Studio City.