I practice person-first language. I make sure I use it in every setting. If you’re not familiar with person first language, it’s the idea that you put a person *before* their disability. The idea is that when we put the disability first, we define a person by their disability. However, no person is defined by their disability. A person is just…..a person first. So, instead of saying that bipolar guy, you
I think one thing, well actually I KNOW one thing I never knew about CAS before Ashlynn, was the significant difficulty kids with CAS tend to have with word finding. Ashlynn and all of my clients struggle with this to varying degrees. Sometimes, Ashlynn’s seem innocent. She’ll call me grandma after she’s been with her grandma all day. She’ll say “today” when she really meant “tomorrow,” or say “tomorrow” when
I realized in the entirety of my blog, I have never even once addressed oral motor exercises, aka mouth exercises, or now being touted as oral placement therapy; in the treatment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech. The “why” is actually very simple. Massive amounts of research consistently demonstrate they are ineffective in the treatment of speech sound disorders. In graduate school I had to do a paper on their ineffectiveness
When Ashlynn was in preschool, there was a sweet girl in her class I’ll call J. Her mom and I hit it off right away. Her mom is currently a stay at home mom, but she was a teacher before that. We have similar ideas on parenting, discipline, and just raising kids in general. We had a few play dates and the girls got along great. Her daughter is typical
One more follow up to my last story about my dear friend who has passed. You can read about that here: Under the Influence. Goodbye Sarah. RIP Many highschool friends, most highschool friends, remain just that. Friends you had in highschool. But sometimes, if you’re lucky, one of your highschool friends turns out to be a sister. As it turned out, I was one of those lucky people. When the
A departure post from apraxia, but I would be remiss if I never publicly wrote about the death of one of my best friends. Today, January 20th 2016 I received this text: “She is dead!!!” What did you think when you read that? Then you can’t even imagine what I thought. That “she” is my best friend since I was 14. I’m 35. That means that “she” was a girl