To the Board of Directors: I am writing to you to ask that you withdraw the proposals from the Ad Hoc committee on FC and RPM. The members of this committee have a longstanding public record of trying to discredit the use of FC, RPM and other forms of typing or spelling as a form…
Emma: My name is Emma Budway, Ben: and I am Benjamin McGann and we both use spelling to communicate. Emma: The majority of my and Benjamin’s childhood was spent in countless therapies and special education. Ben: Each claiming to get through to the autistic child and teach him or her to be normal, or at…
Re: [TIME SENSITIVE] ASHA Policy Statement on RPM My name is Thomas Pruyn and I am a nonspeaking autistic who uses spelling to communicate. I am Ryan McMahon and I am a nonspeaking autistic who uses spelling to communicate. Like many other nonspeaking autistics, I, Ian Nordling, have found my voice by spelling on a…
We have been so grateful to spend the last 6 weeks with Shelby Watson, our fabulous Australian intern! Shelby was so eager to learn how to teach nonspeaking individuals to Spell to Communicate (S2C) that she packed up her bags, hopped a plane and embraced American life and clinical skills as a participant in our…
When I first started working at Growing Kids, I worked with students who were brand new to Spelling to Communicate, as well as some who started with Elizabeth beforehand. Over that time, skills began to build, goals were being met, and fluency was increasing. For the students and for myself, as well! Doing a regular,…
Today we welcome guest blogger, Michele Kukler, one of our ACTS (Accessing Community Through Spelling) professional practitioners and teacher extraordinare of the Connections School of Atlanta. Michele and the incredibly dedicated teachers and staff at Connections are leaders in education as they include nonspeaking students along side speaking peers inside and outside the classroom through…
What a spectacular night at the Atlas Theater in Washington DC for the screening of Deej! Deej is the must-see documentary about DJ Savarese, a nonspeaking autistic and his journey to be included as a college student. The film is powerful and a story that we hope will become common for all of our students….
GKTC’s Tribe has kicked off the fall schedule with an exchange between The University of Virginia students and Tribe members. The University of Virginia students are taking the undergrad psychology course, The Science and Lived Experience of Autism along with the young adults of Growing Kids Therapy Center’s “Tribe”. Last year, the Tribe completed the…
For our final week of Summer Institute, our guest lecturers were Meenu and Sarina from the University of Maryland. Meenu and Sarina work together at the Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and teach students how to think outside of the box and bring new, interesting ideas to life! After the “getting to know you” portion…
GKTC Summer Institute kicked off the summer exploring multimedia journalism: photography, videography, television, and radio. The past two weeks in Summer Institute was all about media in a different context… A R T! Liz Michaels, GKTC’s longterm intern, is also an art instructor and led us in a discussion about types of art: fine art…
I am so excited to introduce Diane Belnavis and Brent Sullivan as guest bloggers! We formed an instant friendship when I met Brent, Diane and Dylan at the TASH Conference in Portland Oregon in November 2015. They have one of the most beautiful stories I have ever heard and it keeps getting better and better…
Hi everyone! My name is Karen Dorula and I’m an occupational therapist at GKTC. Elizabeth has challenged us all to jump onto the blog. I’m very excited to be able to share all of the wonderful chess that has been happening here! I started teaching chess in January 2016 after one of my letterboard clients,…
