Whatnowreality

1 in 20 U.S. adults experience a series mental illness each year, but less than 2/3 receive treatment.
The average delay between onset of mental illness symptoms and treatment is 11 years.
55% of U.S. counties do not have a single practicing psychiatrist.
60% of Americans are concerned about the stigma around mental illness.

For additional information. Visit nami.org

What Makes a Good S2C Practitioner? | I-ASC I still remember the day I decided to become a Spelling to Communicate Practitioner. It was at the beginning of the pandemic, and I had just started my practice as a play therapist… and the world was shutting down. My business was put on hold, and I felt defeated and…

Shatter the barriers of silence by becoming a Certified S2C practitioner!
As the sole provider of certified Spelling to Communicate™ Training, I-ASC trains S2C Practitioners worldwide to teach the S2C method, an evidence-based practice that teaches individuals with motor challenges the purposeful motor skills needed to point to letters to spell as an alternative means of communication (AAC).
✏️Learn more here: https://i-asc.org/training/
With over 26 million nonspeakers worldwide, there are more potential spellers than trained practitioners to teach them. I-ASC has trained over 420 Certified S2C Practitioners worldwide. Given the assumption that each S2C Practitioner will serve at least 15 new nonspeakers per year over a 20-year career, that means each S2C Practitioner has the potential to help 300 nonspeaking people. For every training cohort of 10 S2C Practitioners, they will be able to serve 3,000 nonspeaking individuals collectively; 10 cohorts could support 30,000 nonspeaking people! The more practitioners trained worldwide, the more nonspeakers will be able to communicate effectively.

Did you know Nonspeaking does not necessarily mean no speech? It is an umbrella term that includes minimally speaking and unreliably speaking individuals. So what does this mean? 🤔

Many Spellers have limited speech. Some have what would be considered “a lot” of speech. They can label objects, use routine phrases (eg, “I want water”, “Where is mom?”) and answer common questions (asking their name, asking how they feel, yes/no questions, etc). HOWEVER, their speech is often unreliable. What is “unreliable speech”?

Simply put, unreliable speech means that what someone says is NOT comprehensive of their thoughts and often times, what comes out of their mouth does not match what they are thinking.

We like to think of unreliable speech as an individual’s mouth having a “word bank” to pull from. Those are the words that their mouth muscles have practiced over & over, making it automatic for them to say. When the muscle movement becomes purposeful (ie, they’re trying to say something/convey an original thought), that automatic/overlearned movement often takes over.

Sometimes what’s said makes contextual sense: Someone falls and the Speller says, “Are you ok?”, but maybe what they wanted to say was “That looks like it really hurt - can I get you some ice?” Or maybe, you ask a Speller what they want to eat and they say “a cheeseburger” but what they really wanted to say was “chicken alfredo.”

If an individual has difficulty answering non-routine questions or answers are unreliable (we frequently see this with yes/no questions), spelling is often a great way to increase reliability in communication! It all comes down to supporting the brain-body connection! 🧠 🔗

Save the date! 🎉 Motormorphosis is July 26-28

Motormorphosis is the biggest conference for the nonspeaking community. This flagship conference is the first to give accurate and updated information on research, motor, policy, technology, regulation, and S2C. Each discussion topic is crucial in creating transformation throughout the spellerverse.

Friday kicks off with a full-day conference only for registered S2C Practitioners in good standing and Practitioners currently in S2C training, where they will learn the latest strategies to help nonspeakers. Friday Night, we honor our spellers with a special party to kick off the rest of this fun-filled weekend.

In our general conference Saturday and Sunday, you will learn from spellers, families, politicians, researchers, and practitioners. During breaks, you can browse through a hand-picked collection of exhibitors joining the event. So join us to share in the festivities, learn, and interface with friends, family, practitioners, and allies throughout the Spellerverse.

We look forward to seeing you at the Hyatt Regency Dulles!

Interested in becoming a practitioner and ready to find out more about our training program? Get detailed information, find out how to get started, and ask all your questions about this rigorous program. Take the first step and start changing the lives of nonspeakers!

Both sessions with have a spanish interpreter.

Reserve your spot using the link below:
https://i-asc.org/event/s2c-practitioner-training-information-session/

We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about the difference between “typical” AAC (talkers, picture boards, just typing on an ipad/keyboard) and Spelling to Communicate. This visual covers some of the differences but certainly not all!

The main difference is the perspective that is used to teach these forms of communication! Spelling to Communicate teaches the body to listen to what the brain is telling it to do because we know that the core difficulty for many non-speaking and minimally speaking individuals is motor control! This perspective is almost never used when individuals are taught to use a “talker” or picture board. This is because there is an assumption (VERY often a wrong assumption) that the reason an individual isn’t communicating is because of cognitive, social, and/or behavioral delays. As you can imagine, when the root of the challenge is not targeted (in these instances, motor control), progress & expression are limited!

We support ALL forms of communication. Our preference is most often Spelling to Communicate because it’s the method in which we see the most progress with our non-speaking and minimally speaking clients. ✏️ 🔠

If your child has made limited progress using a “talker”, Spelling to Communicate may provide the support that is needed to achieve open communication! Want to learn more about this? We’d love to chat!
📞 Call/text 330-299-5121

10 Dos and Don’ts of Communicating with a Speller | I-ASC We live in the age of communication. There are many forms of communication, but paramount to the development of individual sovereignty and a true sense of agency is communication by means of language, both spoken and written. Many of us take this ability, and the right to employ it, for…

South Africa here we come! 🇿🇦

Elizabeth Vosseller, the founder of Spelling to Communicate™ (S2C™), is offering a FREE community talk December. 1, 2023 in Pretoria in collaboration with the The Sisu Hub.

There is limited seating available for this event so be sure to grab your spot before Novemeber 30, 2023!