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818.326.0449
Teaching Nonverbal Autistic People to Communicate by Pointing to Letters and Typing
I help people with autism to gradually increase their ability to express and share their own thoughts. This is done by combining academic lessons and conversations with working on pointing the response onto a letter board, on a keyboard or on an iPad. These sessions are geared to help people with a severe motor disconnect between their procedural mind and motor system to learn to use their eyes and hands together to accurately point to letters to communicate. There simply is no greater joy than enabling someone who has been locked internally to gain the skills to be able to communicate his or her own thoughts and to be able to access a meaningful education.
Additional Services Available
Mental Health Counseling for Typers
My unique experience as a mental health professional and as a mother of an autistic child enables me to identify and address the emotional needs of people with autism. With the typical intense focus on cognitive advancement, the emotional needs of autistic people often fall by the wayside. My experience has taught me that, similar to and perhaps more so than neuro-typical children and adults, cognitive performance is strongly influenced by emotional wellbeing. Therefore, providing emotional support and counsel to the person with autism (and at times the parents and the extended family) is an important treatment option available for families.
Support for Parents of Children with Special Needs
As a mother of an autistic child, I know how challenging having a special needs family member can be to the rest of the family. I combine my clinical expertise and my close familiarity with the autistic world to provide family support for parents of children with special needs. I give parents, who understandably feel physically and emotionally depleted, the emotional support and the techniques to tackle the unique challenges that having a special needs child present.