The Independent Living Movement
On the first day of class, they brought in a self-advocate. I don’t think I have ever met a person with more abbreviations after her name. Dr. Ficchi is a self-advocate who focuses on setting the bar higher for people with disabilities and her dissertation is...
Arizona’s History with the disabled
To peek into Arizona’s history we had speaker Pat Volle. He worked in Arizona with differently-abled people for over 40 years. Institutions like Pennhurst were everywhere, even in Arizona. Actually, two of them still exist. Arizona State Hospital This hospital was...
History of Disability in America
This is a difficult subject to cover. Our history here is an unpleasant one. In the beginning we were not kind to those with disabilities. We placed them into institutions. We forgot about them. We classified them as other, and we allowed them to be treated as...
Pilot Parent Class 2019-2020
In 1970 the Pilot Parent movement started in Omaha Nebraska. The mother of a child who had a diagnosis of Down Syndrome created a 1:1 peer mentoring program for parents raising children with Down Syndrome. In 1974 awareness of this program quickly spread there was a...
The change one person can make…
Today I had a meeting with Marc Garica, President and CEO of Visit Mesa. Marc has had a long history of working with different cities to increase tourism for their businesses and communities. Now he is at Visit Mesa and is making groundbreaking changes to Mesa’s...
My Self-Care Wake Up Call
I am a huge proponent of self-care. I care about self-care so much that I created D.A.M.E.S. a self-care platform for mothers raising special needs children. However sometimes it’s easier to talk the talk than to walk the walk. About three months ago I got serious...
The Importance of Communication
Jackson is non-verbal. He has apraxia of speech which is a motor speech disorder. When Jackson was younger he had speech… he could say words at 2 that he still cannot say today at 6. I remember watching this fade… I remember a series of ear infections during which...
DDD and True North
*** Disclaimer: The meeting with DDD occurred last month. You might not see the changes described until this plan rolls out State wide. It will probably be two months before your Service Coordinator is informed of these changes. Please don't ask your vendors or...
Easter is coming…
Holidays for families with special needs children can be very difficult- especially for those on the autism spectrum. When holidays come our children have to deal with a many different stressors: their schedule is thrown off, they are usually dress in clothes that are...
Tennis and the Volleys of Life
Sometimes I feel like I’m swallowed up by autism. It is everywhere: the schools my children attend, the mothers who have become my friends, and the outings we participate in are all geared towards autistic families. So much so that I have forgotten what typical looks...