Talking and hearing. Two things most of us, including myself, can do without any props or devices. Which means I’m fairly portable – I can dash out the door and trust that if I need to communicate with someone about something, I can. I think about this a lot in respect to [...]
Filed under: communication - general, equipment on March 2nd, 2008 | No Comments »
Following is the speech/presentation I wrote and delivered for the Children’s Treatment Network – a new virtual therapy center for children with disabilities for York Region (the region north of Toronto). It is ‘virtual’ because there is no physical location – therapists are connected and referred by phone, email and web services. The audience was [...]
Filed under: communication - general, essays + speeches, social on February 21st, 2008 | No Comments »
Regarding my last post, a comment from my dad, SKJ:
You are surely too hard on yourself. “Presentable” and “regular” are the loaded words, the dark suspicion that your quest for communication is some sort of misguided response to shame. It is not Owen’s humanity that is on the table, but yours, ours, all of us. [...]
Filed under: communication - general, movies/books/media on February 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
Owen had his communications assessment meeting yesterday, at Bloorview Kids Rehab, and it was fascinating. It will likely take several posts to distill it all – but I’ll start with the most compelling stuff.
I have been assuming all this time that independence should be the final communication goal for Owen. To be able [...]
Filed under: communication - general, equipment on January 30th, 2008 | No Comments »
A couple of incidents over the past couple of days that make me realize just how imperfect the idea of a ‘communication system’ is…
Incident 1
Owen is fed by g-tube and especially these days gets very little to eat by mouth. He silently aspirates even on his own saliva and adding any food into the [...]
Filed under: communication - general on January 27th, 2008 | No Comments »
Decision is made: time to develop a proper home-based curriculum, and withdraw Owen from school once the programming and support are in place. I’m aiming for March, but this process could take until the end of the current school year.
A good first step was made – I had a long meeting with Laurel (at Bloorview) [...]
Filed under: communication - general on January 17th, 2008 | 4 Comments »