Growing Kids Therapy Center’s STEM-focused Summer Institute is in full swing! This week, our group met for an Eggciting Physics Eggstravaganza, and kicked off the week with some eggsperiments. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Can you tell the difference between a raw egg and a hard-boiled egg just by spinning them? Can […]
GKTC Eggstravaganza Egg Drop! Read More »
TRIBE CONTINUES TO GIVE! The Tribe are nonspeaking young adults who meet weekly at Growing Kids Therapy Center and who use spelling as a form of communication and are all highly fluent in their ability to communicate. Growing Kids Therapy Center is dedicated to teaching non-speaking, minimally speaking and unreliably speaking individuals how to Spell
Tribe Spreads Love Read More »
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
Open Letter to ASHA by Elizabeth Vosseller Read More »
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
Open letter to ASHA from Emma Budway & Benjamin McGann Read More »
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
Open Letter to ASHA from The I&I Guys Read More »
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,
A Myth of Giant Proportions Read More »
When people meet Buddy, our OT dog, they often ask me how I became interested in animal assisted occupational therapy. While this picture says 1,000 words, I will still write a few more! Well, the journey began when I was born. No, really! My family adopted a golden retriever puppy a few months before I
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.
DEEJ The Movie: Inclusion shouldn’t be a lottery Read More »
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
Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Summer Institute Read More »
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
Art as Social Protest: Let Us Show You The Wei! Read More »
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
Letterboards, not just life changing.. life saving Read More »
