Here at The Orange Effect Foundation (OEF) our focus is on kids and early intervention. In keeping up with all the latest research on speech therapy we come across a lot of interesting information. Recently, two articles were written on the same day by The Guardian. They focused on women who always knew there was something different about themselves but didn’t know what it was. Unfortunately, they …
Kids Teach Us So Much
I really enjoy spending time with kids because they are so smart and so aware of the world around them. They generally are not judgmental (yet) and often so willing to try new things. The 5th Grade Class at Lakewood Catholic Academy (LCA) in Lakewood, Ohio is one such group. As a service project, they participated in our second annual Silence for Speech campaign to help recognize the …
Being Grateful For the Little Things
We at The Orange Effect Foundation find it easy to be grateful. To be specific, we have 276 reasons to be thankful. Since December 2015, we have reached 276 kids in 34 states by purchasing 69 speech devices and 5,600 hours of speech therapy. We are making a difference. We are grateful to all our sponsors who help make this happen. To show how far the gratitude goes, here is what some of our …
Expanding Diversity and Fostering Greater Compassion in Speech Therapy
Here at The Orange Effect Foundation, our goal is to make a difference in the lives of children whose families cannot afford speech therapy or a device for communication. One of the things we love is learning about programs designed to help those who may not have access to resources many of us take for granted. Similarly, ASHA, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, recognizes the …
The Need For Autism and Behavioral Specialists
The following is from an article in Onward magazine (the alumni magazine of John Carroll University), Fall 2021 edition. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the expected job growth for autism and behavior specialists is 19%, significantly faster than the average growth across all professions. Why? About 6 million people in the US alone have autism. However, there are currently …
Teaching and Learning With Masks On
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 …
