speech.on.earth_words.4.all

01/14/2025

Not here much these days, but this was the best!

12/22/2024

Didn’t even get to this for the 2024 holiday season 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sometimes as speech pathologists or educators, we’re just surviving, and that’s okay. Resting up this winter break to hopefully bring some new energy and creativity to therapy in 2025 😊 Happy Holidays! 🎉

My early childhood caseload doesn’t do many crafts with me because it’s total chaos with not much time for clean-up in my end 😆 This is our second year painting salt dough ornaments though. I’m happy to say, no paint or ornaments were ingested (there were some close calls 😆). Hoping to catch more of the kids who have been gone before they’re out for the holidays next Wednesday!
🎄❄️☃️

10/02/2023

09/22/2023

Thank you, boardmaker, for getting it when words are simply not enough 😂👏🎉

09/19/2023

Language and play are messy, but that won’t stop us 😉🍁🍂. Happy almost “hump-day” from our speech room!

06/02/2023

Happy Pride ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
I too like you just the way you are 🌈

03/26/2023

This is such important information! Spread the word

12/16/2022

My early childhood caseload doesn’t do many crafts with me because it’s total chaos with not much time for clean-up in my end 😆 This is our second year painting salt dough ornaments though. I’m happy to say, no paint or ornaments were ingested (there were some close calls 😆). Hoping to catch more of the kids who have been gone before they’re out for the holidays next Wednesday!
🎄❄️☃️

11/02/2022

The cleaning wipes are always nearby when working with early childhood students, especially when we get out the play food toys. “Pretending” to eat something is quite abstract 😉.

Want to sponsor me, Clorox? 😆

🦠🤧😷🤒

06/06/2022

ABA therapy (applied behavioral analysis) is a controversial “treatment” for autistic people, often the only form of “therapy” insurance will cover. ABA focuses on shaping a child’s behavior, often times ignoring the underlying causes of the “behavior” (lacking access to functional communication systems, sensory differences, pain, etc).

Dr. Lovaas, who was one of the pioneers of ABA therapy, was also a proponent of conversion therapy for LGBTQIA individuals. Here is a quote from Dr. Lovaas and his thoughts on autism:

“You see, you start pretty much from scratch when you work with an autistic child. You have a person in the physical sense – they have hair, a nose and a mouth – but they are not people in the psychological sense. One way to look at the job of helping autistic kids is to see it as a matter of constructing a person. You have the raw materials, but you have to build the person.” ——> HE ACTUALLY SAID THEY ARE NOT PEOPLE 🤬😡.

That was the assumption that Lovaas was operating from and this is the most widely-recommended and accessible “therapy” for autistic people in our country. Yes, it has been reformed in some ways, but the premise is very dehumanizing. Ableism is still very much alive in the U.S.

Case in point: electric shock therapy. This article explains the history of the use of electric shock therapy at the JRC In Massachusetts. This is 2022 and LEGAL as we stand. The JRC was recently allowed to present at ABAI 2022 Conference in Boston (ABA international conference). Many autistic advocates and therapists, etc. attended to protest and inform people about this practice.

This is our country. It is horrific and needs to change. I don’t think many are aware of this outside of the autism community, so it seemed worth sharing. Sadly, abuse and maltreatment of autistic people and others with developmental disabilities intentionally or due to ignorance is extremely common, so the incidence of trauma experienced by these individuals is often extremely high. Parents and caregivers deserve to be informed about this and provided with access to alternatives.

June is Pride Month 🌈 , and many autistic people belong to the Q***r Community. The parallels and overlapping history between ABA and Conversion Therapy are undeniable, yet Conversion Therapy is widely criticized and recognized as harmful within the field of psychology and its related fields, and ABA is still touted as the “Gold Standard” treatment for autistic people. Essentially, it is trying to rid a person of autism (autism is not a disease 🙄) just like many people have been asked to rid themselves of “being gay” (which sadly still happens but has become less common as an acceptable and humane form of “therapy”).

*edited to add that although this article is older, the information is unknown by many (including myself until recent years)



More information about Dr. Lovaas in the comments.

The ban sought to stop a school in Massachusetts from using shock therapy to prevent harmful behaviors in students with disabilities.

05/25/2022

[another cross post]
-Who are the helpers?- the grownups of course!
-Where are the helpers? I don’t know…
-When will they help us? Tomorrow…
-What are they doing? Yelling at each other maybe…saying prayers?
-How will they help us? Hashtags? Pointing fingers? Making sure only the “good guys” get the guns?

Why won’t they help us???

…………………………………………………………
I have nothing new to add. I’m just sitting in bed, wide awake, trying to picture walking into my school for another day. Thinking about the parents’ anxiety waving to their kids as the bus pulls away.

WHERE ARE THE HELPERS?

It’s been 6 years of working in schools. The “legacy” of gun violence is a constant. Here are some snippets:

A classroom of first graders screaming “We thought you were a shooter!” After I knocked and opened the classroom door to pick up a student after an active shooter drill.

Listening to a 9th grader tell me he didn’t want to go to school because he was afraid he would be shot at his bus stop (because there had been a recent shooting right there)

Active shooter teacher training- being told I “died” because I didn’t get out of the room in time during the drill

A group of 4 year olds telling each other where they hide when they hear gunshots near home

Another preschooler drawing me a picture to show me how her family member “fell asleep” after the bad guy shot him- “asleep” like the cartoon drawing in the articulation assessment I was doing with her, asleep when the car crashed and she got hurt

Hiding under my desk in a dark office trying to keep a pair of preschoolers calm and quiet. Because it’s another “Code red. This is not a drill.” Listening to sirens wailing closer. Another shooting in the neighborhood. Kids swapping stories about the uncle, the cousins, the brother, the fathers that were killed with bullets

Parent running into the office screaming: the house was just shot up! I need my babies!

Opening those “next day” emails: the district’s statement on the most recent event.

Showing up to nearly empty classrooms because parents don’t want to send their kids in with the newest threat of violence.

Who are the helpers? Us. The grownups.

WHERE ARE THE HELPERS?!