Today a photo popped up in my Facebook memories that actually caused me to have a true emotional gasp! Look at the big genuine smile on those boys! That’s Adam on the left, and Joshua on the right. The photo was taken 5 years ago at Minecon - yes, that is right - the convention for Minecraft! Minecraft had a lasting impact on our family - so much so that one of my husband’s most popular …
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To Declare or Not to Declare a Disability
Joshua, the subject of many blog posts, and driving force behind the building of the Orange Effect Foundation, applied for an internship for next summer. I’m super excited about it, although I think the position is for college students and he is only in high school - but still, take a shot, right? During the application process Joshua had to do several things including write a poem - pictured …
12 Commonly-Used Speech Therapy Terms
Confused by some of the terminology you hear from your child's speech language therapist? Thankfully, The Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center breaks down the terminology for us. Take a moment to learn some general terms used by speech language pathologists that will help you during your therapy visit. Expressive language is a broad term that describes how a person communicates their wants …
Schools and Parents Don’t Always Agree On the Best Route for Kids: What Can You Do?
In this final post in our series, we ask the experts a really tough question and they do not disappoint with their answers. It is important to note in this post that procedures for diagnosing a child as well as getting help in school may vary by state, or in some cases, even by school district so it’s important to talk to someone local! What can you do when your child's school does not agree …
#GivingTuesday – Ways to Give to Fight Speech Disorders
This year the #GivingTuesday movement is expected to deliver almost $500 million in funding to amazing charities all over the world. At Orange Effect Foundation, we’ve been surprised how critical #GivingTuesday has become for our little organization. Even a donation of $50 has a major impact on a child dealing with a speech disorder (in general, one hour of speech therapy is between a $50 and …
Being Grateful For the Little Things
We at the Orange Effect Foundation find it easy to be grateful. We have over 100 reasons to be thankful. In 2018, we have funded speech therapy for over 100 children across the United States. 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 Orange Effect grant recipient families are thankful …
Thanksgiving Speech Therapy Activities
Thanksgiving is almost here! Now is the time to start doing some Thanksgiving speech and language activities with your child to help him/her get ready. Activity #1: Thanksgiving Taste Test This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving speech and language activities, though maybe that’s because I enjoy eating! For this activity, tell your child that you are going to do a taste test of all of the …
Recipient Spotlight: Anthony
Anthony is a kind, caring teenager who is challenged by autism and stuttering. Fortunately, he discovered FACETime Summer Camp at the Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center. This special summer speech camp is designed for older children and younger teens who stutter. Camp provides a safe environment where speech skills are practiced in real-life situations at restaurants and other public locations …
Autism and Speech Devices: Helping Kids Advance Skills As They Mature
We think this article from Autism Speaks about autism and speech generating devices is so valuable, we thought we'd share it with you. ------ A parent asks, “Our son is 6 years old, minimally verbal and on the spectrum. We’ve seen him make progress with a speech-generating device – a touch screen with pictures that produce single words. How can we use this approach to keep him making …
A Serious Speech Therapy Funding Problem (and what we are doing about it)
It’s hard to believe that (with your help) we are funding speech therapy services for over 100 children in 25 states. Now, before we start congratulating ourselves, we have a serious problem. In our last Orange Effect Foundation (OEF) board meeting, we granted just over $50,000 in speech therapy services to children and families. While this is great, it was about 50% of what we needed to …
Make Halloween a Better Experience
By its very nature, Halloween is scary. Everything from the decorations, horror films, costumes, and the inflated cost of candy. However, perhaps the scariest part of Halloween is trying to understand it through the eyes of our kids with autism. So how do we make this spooky night less of a nightmare? BOO! Take out the surprise factor Talk about Halloween ahead of time so your child will know …
Lean In to the Uncomfortable
Katie Hill has a genetic disorder that affects her movement and speech. Before she entered 7th grade this year, a friend made this video to introduce Katie to the hundreds of students at her new middle school. We think this video does a great job of showing how a speech generating device works and how using one can open up the world to a child. https://youtu.be/H9nluhqzu3s In this …
