Here and Now Speech and Language Therapy

I put together all of my favorite wordless picture books in one blog post. I've always used wordless picture books but I went on a deep dive this school year and had a perpetual pile from the library on my desk at all times. ...it was just the tip of the iceberg! I'm working with middle school kids now so this list is tailored for the older student crowd. Do you have a favorite one? Please let me know in the comments!
https://www.hereandnowspeech.com/blog/my-love-language-is-wordless

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! Our sped director said a few months ago that we were all getting this book so I held off buying it myself and it came TODAY which happens to be my birthday and I’m gonna take it personally and accept it as a birthday gift.

One of the goals I write for my students who stutter is to be able to state at least five facts about stuttering. My intention is that knowing these facts will be empowering and give them a defense when they encounter people who don’t understand stuttering and do things to “help.” These were the 5 we came up with today:

1. Stuttering changes- sometimes it’s worse and sometimes it’s better
2. 1% of people stutter (1% of 8 billion is 80 million… that’s a lot). It’s common.
3. Stuttering is not caused by nervousness.
4. Stuttering has nothing to do with intelligence or being capable.
5. Telling a person who stutters to “slow down” is NOT helpful.



Tagging because they recently posted a list of “the facts”. There are lots of facts… their list and mine are non-exhaustive.

Tagging because if you or someone you know stutters, the National Stuttering Association is a fantastic resource and place to start to find information that is vetted by / created by people who stutter. Any resource about stuttering that hasn’t considered the perspective of those who stutter is potentially harmful and/or simply misinformed.

I found this today and it’s too important not to share. for SLPs about the harm we can do and how easy it is to do it if we’re not aware of This is why client perspective is an equal part of “It is time for radical acceptance of stuttering.”

Stuttering is a type of Neurodivergence I am used to my stuttering and I wish everyone else would get used to it too. My reactions and my feelings about stuttering are relative to how you, the listener, react. I am only uncomfortable because you are uncomfortable. I am uncomfortable FOR you.

I have a whole thing about that I’m going to post a video about later, but sharing this list now bc it made me so happy… I still use Elf in speech but I’ve dramatically changed how I do it.

Doing the neurodiversity presentation for the district psychs this time ❤️

I presented today for our district SLPs: An Introduction to the Neurodiversity Paradigm and Autistic Perspectives
🤗🤗🤗🤗
So happy to wrap up all of my learning and research and share my journey. And start/continue the discussion about the importance of seeking out the perspectives of those we support. I let them borrow some of my books 📚

Zooms are canceled- all of them! Not just mine but yours too. J/k I don’t have authority to cancel your zooms but you have my permission to cancel anything that’s not working for you. I have to cancel my standing book club Saturday Zooms due to, lack of attendance 🤷🏻‍♀️ I don’t have the resources to rev up social media and

I’m still reading this book I planned to read in September- are you? I’d love to talk to you about it so please reach out and let’s set up a time and do that way.

I’m going to continue posting about books and neurodiversity and speech therapy and if you’re here for it, thank you for being Here ❤️ I want you in any way you show up.

Fall/Winter 2023 Book Club Line Up Announcement- https://mailchi.mp/1d7d36cb3a9d/neurodiversity-book-club-april-newsletter-12617458

Book club line up for the rest of the year- dates adjusted to avoid craziness, Halloween festivities and winter holidays 🤪 Registration links in my bio for all sessions. Please sign up and mark your calendars.
September 23rd 2pm PST: Strong Female Character by Fern Brady- this is a brand new book that’s gotten very good reviews. Really excited to read it.
October 21st 2pm PST- I Never Get Lost in the Woods by Aaron Jepson- this is a novel with an autistic, non-speaking protagonist written by an autistic non-speaking author. Spooky book for October 🎃

December 2nd- 2pm PST: Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong- widening the lens to close out the year with a reminder that is an integral part of Able-bodied people are privileged in this society and it is on us to educate ourselves about the lived experiences of those with disabilities. This journey started for me with autism but it cracked open the ableist framework I’d been working under for all of my clients/students. This is just the beginning.

Thank you for being here.

“Listening to autistic people is the best way to improve autistic people’s lives” - Eric Garcia … from our discussion today ❤️

Thank you for talking about your book Your insight into what’s going on politics-wise in the disability rights sphere is invaluable. As is your multitude of other insights ♾️♾️♾️

Getting ready to announce the line up for the rest of the year so look out for that!

Please stop what you’re doing and seek out autistic perspectives before you do anything else to support autistic people. I’m going to keep saying it until I see openly autistic people directing care for autistic people, in universities teaching professionals about autism, rewriting the DSM definition of autism, informing the mental health support practices of therapists, approving academic programs, consulting education policy, to name just a few things.

Excited to read the July pick “We’re Not Broken” by . Pls register for the zoom session 7/29 at 2pm PST - link in bio.

In case you missed the end of the recap video-book club is meeting to discuss "We're Not Broken" on July 29th at 2pm PST WITH THE AUTHOR July is Disability
Pride Month- great time to get in some and join the club. It's ALWAYS a good time to get your information about disabilities from actually disabled people.

FYI

Hey did you know that "Listening Larry" has been updated to account for differences in the way children might look/act when they're listening? The creator of "Listening Larry" consulted with some neurodivergent experts and totally revamped her posters. Some of us don't listen best when we're looking at you with a calm body and "quiet hands"- and conversely, some of us can't listen when we're forced into uncomfortable positions and not allowed to move! Check out the updated materials here:

Everyday Regulation Supporting learners in a neurodiverse world Free Whole Body Listening Poster! Thanks to information and advocacy from the neurodivergent community, we have made important and necessary updates to the Whole Body Listening Larry resources, starting with this poster! These revisions encourage strategie...

Wanted to share this exchange from today… An lol for any of you play bass therapists out there 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🎸🎸🎸🤣🤣🤣

Loving the book for June: “The Secret Life of a Black Aspie” by Anand Prahlad. I frequently say how much I wish I could see into the minds of the autistic children I work with- and reading the writing of people is a way to at least get closer… there are ways of experiencing the world that are different than your ways. Please join us on Saturday June 24th to talk about this one with us 💜 Zoom registration link in bio

It’s the most wonderful sliiiiiime of the year 💚💚💚💚 My favorite speech activity because it can be tailored to so many goals, it’s FUN and it also means summer is (almost) here! Super excited that had all the books I wanted about the subject. 😍

Autism is not a behavioral disorder (regardless of the fact that the most-prescribed “treatment” continues to be Applied Behavior Analysis). “What looks like defiance is often dysregulation in disguise” - Annie Kotowicz I’ve been feeling the need to post this and maybe buy a billboard. To see an autistic child struggling and then imply it’s intentional by calling it “behavior” is appalling. The majority of autistic people report that they experience the world, from a sensory perspective, way more intensely than non-autistic people. The stress response to sensory dysregulation shouldn’t be met with an incentive to just knock it off. This shift can’t happen fast enough. Please listen to autistic people. Furthermore, get REALLY skeptical when you see professionals using rewards/punishments to train away any other diagnoses… seek out the perspectives of those affected by whatever it is your client is experiencing. We unfortunately can’t trust the establishment to do this for us.

Before you write a goal for your autistic student to make conversation about "non preferred topics" because you think it's weird they talk so much about a thing they love, please do some research about what autistic people have to say about their "special interests"- this video from Amythest Schaber would be a great start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWwFr5_pbY

Ask an Autistic #13 - What are Special Interests? What are special interests? What do special interests provide for autistic people? Do special interests ever change? What should I do about my child's specia...

Autism has always been described in the ways it’s experienced by non-Autistic people. If you’re not listening to Autistic people, you don’t understand autism. The full quote from our club book for April, reads:

‘As Reese Piper put it, “It’s neurotypicals who categorized autism as a social disorder.” Autistic people don’t lack communication skills, or a drive to connect. We aren’t doomed to forever feel lonely and broken. We can step out of the soul-crushing cycle of reaching for neurotypical acceptance and being rejected despite our best efforts. Instead, we can support and uplift one another, and create our own neurodiverse world where everyone—including neurotypicals—is welcome.” -pg 224-5 Unmasking Autism by

Bookclub is April 29th at 2pm PST on Zoom - registration link in bio 💜💜💜💜💜💜

Using this image today with a group of students plus a TikTok video from about “neurotypical communication” to talk about one way AuDHD people and non-AuDHD people communicate differently. This is a dramatic departure from the way my field taught me to “teach social skills” to autistic students. I’ve read countless “social problem solving” scenarios and “perspective taking task cards” which involve neurotypical people dropping hints about what they actually mean/think/feel and trying to help autistic kids interpret the “clues”- all with an ableist, neurotypical framing that this hint-dropping is a good, correct, effective way to communicate and the autistic person who doesn’t naturally get it is deficient. Bafflingly, it’s also presented with a neurotypical style of communication- instead of saying “We need to work on your ability to pick up on non-direct communication styles,” we present them with these scenarios and hope they’ll just guess what it is they’re supposed to be working on. It’s been exhausting. Being able to openly talk about autism, using the word “autistic” with autistic students from a standpoint of neutrality about autism is SO much easier. I want to give them this information to empower them to stick up for their own communication style and not shame them into acting like the hint-dropping neurotypical.

We will be reading Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price for our April Neurodiversity Book Club meeting Saturday April 29th at 2pm PST on Zoom. Not seeing my posts? Please sign up for the email list! Links to the email list, the Zoom registration and the Facebook group in bio. See you there!

I’m not as good of an artist as … here’s my self portrait and selfie for today.

Tired after a whole day of IEPs… but made sure to wear my new favorite IEP shirt from ❤️❤️❤️

Child expresses interest in a toy. Therapist takes the toy away and makes them earn it back by doing (insert whatever here). Child learns that whatever he shows interest in is taken away.

Child learns to fear showing interest in anything in front of that therapist.
Now imagine you have that therapist in front of you 40 hours a week. Or all day during a school day. You learn that showing interest results in things you like being taken away. You learn to be passive and wait to be told what you can and can't have access to. Then you're punished for not communicating when you want something. You're asked to repeat phrases using the sentence frame "| want…” And then you're "rewarded" for using your words by getting the thing you asked for- until they want you to talk again and it's taken away.

This is not conducive to spontaneous language use. Language comes from joint attention and it has to come from a place of trust in the person you're sharing your attention with. If you're afraid your interest and attention is going to be met with a punishment (e.g. the thing you show interest in being taken away), you're not going to show interest any more. I feel like that's something a behaviorist should be able to see easily.

I was particularly disturbed by one case I was involved with this week. I asked “What is something he is interested in that's not being withheld as a reinforcer?" and I was met with blank looks.. because there isn't anything... because all of the things he shows interest in are being withheld in exchange for compliance. Can you imagine an existence like that? This isn't something we should be doing to humans... or any living beings for that matter.

Withholding something can get a child to say words... it can be "effective" in that way... but it should never be used as the primary method for eliciting language. The effects are temporary. The collective effects of constant withholding result in blocked communication and prompt dependency.

From page 17 of our
February read- an excellent explanation of why the deficits-checklist description of autism is damaging. If you can only read one page, this is a good one to read.

Line up for tonight and tomorrow. FYI, we will be hearing a bit from each author, then we’ll go into breakout rooms for discussion w/ guidance questions and then we’ll have time for some Q&A with the authors.

Image description: white background with black writing and image of a leaf drawing with the following text:

Who’s coming to bookclub?
Friday 1/27 at 7:30pm

Co-editor: ~ Sharon daVanport
Chapter 4: What Your Daughter Deserves: Love, Safety, and the Truth ~Kassianne Asasumasu
Chapter 6: Change the World, Not Your Child ~Lei Wiley Mydske
Chapter 11: A Daughter’s Journey: Lessons, Honesty, and Love ~Jennifer St. Jude
Chapter 16: I Wish I Wasn’t So Hard on Myself Back Then ~Kayla Smith

Who’s coming to book club?
Saturday 1/28 3:00pm PST

Chapter 1: Acknowledge Vulnerability, Presume Competence ~Martin Allen
Chapter 2: It’s Us Against the World, Kid ~Brigid Rankowski
Chapter 13: Perfect in An Imperfect World ~Haley Moss
Chapter 24: Autism, Sensory Experience, and Family Culture ~Mallory Cruz

Permission, consent , vulnerable, unsafe … vocabulary to support my session today using Evaleen Whelton’s “Standing Up For Myself.” We talked about from an empowering place of consent and autonomy. We talked about our own personal space and how it’s not ok for someone else to violate ours (this is in response to a goal I inherited about a student staying out of everyone’s “bubble”- what about his bubble? How much hand over hand did he have to endure only to be told he’s not allowed to touch other people?). So grateful for this workbook that supports neurodivergent identity ❤️❤️❤️