Before I knew my daughter Ashlynn had CAS, and before I spent countless hours researching, taking trainings, and becoming an expert in CAS; I was an elementary school SLP. Like any new SLP, I was relatively inexperienced with CAS. One year, I transferred schools and a 3rd grade boy with a dx of CAS popped up on my caseload. Most people, including his mother, still found him very hard
Can everyone agree parenting is stressful? I’m sure we all can. I read something the other day though that perfectly described my life. “If parenting can feel like a roller coaster of anxiety, than special needs parenting is a whole carnival.” I’ve also read that PTSD is common among parents of kids with special needs. I’ve also read and seen quoted a very popular article: Autism moms have stress similar
Well, Ashlynn completed Kindergarten. It was pretty anti-climactic to be honest. For some reason, her school doesn’t believe in Kindergarten graduations. Okay, it’s not for “some reason,” it’s because the philosophy of the school is that graduations signify an end and Kindergarten is just a beginning. I get it…kind of. Actually no, I don’t get it at all. If that were the case, we wouldn’t celebrate any graduation because technically
We went on vacation for Spring Break. I took a picture of me and my girl on an amusement park ride: She told me the chairs we were sitting in were “penguin chairs.” Two years ago she couldn’t do that. Mark a noun with an adjective like that. Adjectives let us be creative with our speech. She barely had the basics down, but I was still happy then because she
When I was in 1st grade, a little boy kept kissing me on my head. After the third time, I told my mother in exasperation. I explained that even though I kept telling him to stop, he still kept doing it. That night, both my parents had decided my mom would go to school the next day and let the teacher know and put a stop to it. “Nooooo,” I
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