I had an amazing lunch with Dr. Lauren Calandruccio, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, who specializes in all things audiology. I learned fascinating things. For example, when she has one of her typical students try out a cochlear implant simulator in class, and she is teaching with a mask on, some students comprehend as little as FIVE PERCENT of what she is saying. I was shocked. We …
I Have No Idea what AI Is, But It’s Great
I had the pleasure of hearing it in an-person (wow!) presentation by my super smart friend, Paul Roetzer. Paul is the brains behind the Marketing AI (Artificial Intelligence) Institute. In his presentation, Paul talked about some amazing things you can do with AI. For example, AI can learn when people are more likely to open an email from you based on your previous habits. AI can almost …
Is it Ever Too Late For Speech Therapy?
This post originally published on the OEF blog on October 4, 2018. Due to its usefulness we are reposting it here for you. Continuing in our series of blog posts answering some of the frequently asked questions that we get here at The Orange Effect Foundation, we have reached out to our experts to find out if you are ever too old to start speech therapy. We started the series last month by …
Growing Up Without Technology
I’m a Gen Xer. Darn proud of it too. I am one of those who feel that we had the best childhood growing up. I’ll save that tirade for another post though. What I do appreciate, is that there wasn’t any social media when I was growing up. I was reminded of this yesterday, when I got to see a major league baseball game. It was my first time back in a really large crowd since the pandemic hit …
The Story of The Orange Effect Foundation
This post originally published on The Orange Effect Foundation blog on January 26, 2016. Due to its popularity, we are reposting it here for you. The Orange Effect Foundation (OEF) officially launched last spring, but its story began more than a decade ago, when Joe and Pam’s first-born son, Joshua, was diagnosed with autism. In those days, Pam was a stay-at-home mom with a healthy baby …
Who Inspires You? We Want To Know!
I’ve run across a lot of feel good articles this week. It amazes me what people can accomplish and to be honest, I often envy their constant upbeat mood and never ending drive. I realize too, that most of these folks just don’t get enough credit. So we would love to highlight some of them here at The Orange Effect Foundation. Here’s some I ran across this week! Dylan …
Normalizing Diversity and Winning the Internet
Make sure you have a few hours before you read this post. Have you heard of Chris Ulmer? He was featured in this blog post from The Tilt. He is extraordinary because although no publishers were interested in his book idea, he found a way to grow his content empire. Chris started as a special education teacher. In a video from 2015, he is seen giving compliments to his students and it went …
Speech Language Therapist Appreciation Day
The month of May brings so many things--signs of summer, graduations, weddings, and so much more. May is also Better Hearing and Speech Month. Part of that is Speech Language Therapist (SLP) Appreciation day on May 18. SLPs are VERY important to us here at the Orange Effect Foundation. One example of this is that every application is required to involve a therapist who is certified by the …
The Cure For Autism
(Okay, okay, there really isn't a medical one.) “I would have never guessed he had autism.” “How long has he had autism?” “Is he cured?” I have talked with other parents a lot about these questions. They are a compliment mostly. If someone meets my son for the first time and can’t ‘tell’ he’s autistic that’s good, right? The whole goal since he was two years old was to provide …
Why I Am Grateful for Famous People Who Speak Out
I was recently sent this Yahoo article in which actress Holly Robinson Peete shares that her 19-year-old son is autistic. The article focuses on her advocacy which is so important in our society. It’s an unfair pressure to put on a celebrity, but one that, in this case, Holly has taken in stride. She talks in the article about the impact of the pandemic. Specifically, that her autistic …
“Symptoms” of Autism – A Focus on the Positive
I was writing a blog post about how autism is never cured. People with autism learn to adjust to societal norms and they learn, in a way, how to rewire their brain for themselves so that they can be successful. But they are never cured. In doing that research, I came across this image, one I had never seen before, and it blew me away. What a wonderful truth to be put into words. …
Raising An Autistic Son: Four Things I’d Change
This post was originally published on the Orange Effect blog on August 17, 2017. Due to its popularity, we are reposting it here for you. My son is a successful sophomore in high school and I wouldn’t change a single thing about him now. He was diagnosed with Autism at age two and received countless hours of speech and occupational therapy to get where we are today. Often as he goes …
