Father’s Day always makes me pause ... not just as a dad, but as someone who’s witnessed firsthand what it means to fight for a child’s future.When our oldest child was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, Pam and I faced the fear that every parent dreads: the unknown. Would our child speak? Connect? Play? We didn’t know. What we did know was that we’d do anything to help. That journey led us to …
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Letting Go Is Tough
Recently, in my world, there have been a lot of conversations around tracking people using technology. It’s true that things like Find My iPhone have made it easy to see where someone is located. Some of these conversations involve friends who travel a lot and some involve elderly parents. But primarily the conversations revolve around kids. In my case, adult kids. For example, I have …
12 Hours
Can you imagine doing the same thing over and over for 12 hours? That’s what our golfers did on May 12. They completed 100 holes of golf to raise money for kids who want to communicate. Three of the golfers joined our 500 club. Meaning that this is their fifth year participating in the event. Others have participated every single year so that means 600. Wow. I was there for 12 hours, but not …
A Movie Review and an Autism Review
I went to see The Accountant 2, a sequel to the first Accountant movie that came out in 2016. In both movies the lead actor, Ben Affleck, portrays an autistic person. Some people call his autism his superpower because he can crunch numbers at an amazingly rapid rate. One of my favorite parts of this movie takes place at a bar with country music. A line dance starts and because everything is in …
Nolan’s Story
Nolan is a 4-year-old from Oklahoma who has Autism, Developmental Delay, and Apraxia of Speech. He has been receiving speech therapy since 2 years old, both privately and in school. He is mostly non-verbal but is using some speech. He has recently received an Augmentative Device to help him with verbal output. The family reached out to The Orange Effect Foundation hoping for a week of …
Why I Care About Speech Therapy
It’s no secret that the Orange Effect Foundation started because of our experience with our oldest who was diagnosed with Autism at age 2. We were so lucky to have early intervention and to be able to find ways to get the resources needed. We know not every family is that lucky. But I’m starting to realize that my journey with speech therapy started long before I became a mom. One of my …
What’s Your Why?
Every once in a while, I get a little distracted and I forget why I do things. I’m not talking about just why I walked in the kitchen, although that happens a lot too. I’m talking about why I do the work I do or even why I chose the profession I did. But I was reminded of my why at our last board meeting. The application review committee shared with us the stories of a couple of the …
Opportunities in Communication
I listened to an interesting podcast interview with someone named Chris Sacca on the Tim Ferris podcast (of Four-Hour Workweek fame). Chris seems to be one of those technology innovators that are in all the important meetings. He meets with leaders at ChatGPT, Microsoft, Google and all the rest. In the interview, Chris was asked what he thinks the career paths of the future will be. He …
A Great Definition of Vocation
I recently heard a great sermon. The Reverend was talking about how he found his grandpa‘s old watch from the 1960s or 70s that was given as a gift for 40 years of service at the person’s work. He was even wearing the watch to show everyone the stretchy band that was so popular back then. Reverend went on to say how he remembered how much his grandpa loved his work. The sermon then evolved into …
Taylor Seems To Get It
My friend Melanie has written twice now about Taylor Swift, and how her lyrics connects to people who are autistic. Melanie believes that Taylor’s songwriting speak to the autistic experience. She’s not the only one by the way. There are Facebook groups related to Autistic Swifties, podcasts about it, Reddit threads and more. In her most recent post, Melanie shares that the latest album …
Traveling the Spectrum
Did you know that 87% of families with children on the Autism Spectrum do NOT take vacations? I am always hesitant to share links that require a paid subscription to access it but I can’t pass this one up. We are blessed to know the family of one of the creators of a new show that highlights three families who have a loved one with Autism and are taking a vacation. Peter’s (one of the …
Why We Went Digital at OEF (and some Upcycle / Recycle ideas)
We are rolling into our second year being all digital here at The Orange Effect Foundation. It was a tough transition. First for the team who had to learn the entire online system, and then for the families and therapists who also had to learn how to submit digital applications, including uploading documents and using electronic signatures, etc. If you haven’t heard our backstory, it’s quite …
