Recently, one of our parents asked what to do when her son become grabby and pinchy at home or school.  She recognizes that her son has motor control issues and knows that he is not trying to intentionally hurt her but is having trouble reconciling the difference between his intentions and actions. All of our clients…
In celebration of Martin Luther King Day, we are reposting this blog from MLK weekend in Atlanta 2 years ago! Â Wow! Â It is amazing to see how far along these fantastic spellers and self advocates have come since then! The fight for communication rights is stronger than ever! ~Elizabeth I returned from my second workshop…
Huan Vuong started advocating for communication and education rights for himself and other nonspeaking individuals as soon as he got on the letterboards. This was his second year presenting at the TASH conference. Due to Huan’s strong advocacy, his school system has recently responded to his requests to meet his communication needs and will provide…
Autistic individuals are the true autism experts. Matthew Lager’s TASH Talk debunking the myths of non-verbal autism is a must read for anyone who has an autistic child or works with autistic individuals. Matthew uses a letterboard and keyboard to spell to communicate. He prepared this presentation for the 2016 TASH conference with his mother…
This holiday, our families from New Zealand decided to have holiday lesson swap. Each of the ten families contributed one holiday themed lesson and walked away with TEN LESSONS! Since I am no fool, I jumped right on this swap. All of the lessons have been fantastic but I have particularly enjoyed the lesson about…
Last week we promised more presentations by our students at the 2016 TASH Conference in St. Louis. Â Ian Nordling is our next self advocate presenting his thoughts on the importance of communication in his TASH Talk. Â Ian has been spelling on the letterboards and keyboards for over 2 years and is now beginning to type…
This year, four of Growing Kids’ nonspeaking or unreliably speaking clients presented at the TASH 2016 conference in St. Louis! Each of our students gave a TASH Talk (in the style of a TED Talk) and participated together for a panel discussion on inclusion. We will be sharing their presentations with you over the next…
We are often inspired by the creative strategies our families find to make education and communication on the letter boards interesting and meaningful. During a Skype consult, Jasmin explained how she created social and communication opportunities between her son, who spells to communicate, and her nephew. Jasmin graciously agreed to share her fantastic strategies as…
A few weeks ago, my client, Ethan, came in for his session very upset and agitated.  We began our lesson and tried working through his irritation to no avail. Ethan was becoming more and more distraught. So, we took a short detour from our lesson to discuss the issue. I am a big stickler for doing…
