One Door (Almost) Closes...

So, I was recently given the opportunity to possibly volunteer in the Speech Dept. at a satellite campus of a local children's hospital. This would just be for some hours a week, from July- August. Awesome, right?! The only issue is, the campus I was assigned to is 1-1.5 hours by bus, and the last 15 minutes, according to Google Maps, can only be completed by car/taxi. Well, I won't have a car at school, and I don't plan on taking a taxi... even if I could find one in that area?! Walking the last stretch is worse, adding another 1-2 hours. Yikes! I e-mailed the volunteer coordinator, asking how many days a week the position is. If it is only one, then perhaps I could find a means of transportation through a friend or something. Which would be great! But, we'll have to wait and see. Luckily, the coordinator told me I could also defer this volunteer position until next summer, which would be great and I could possibly have more time volunteering since I'm not even back in the US til mid-July!

With that said, despite this one door possibly closing, another one is opening! A professor posted a volunteer opportunity on our club's Facebook group. There's a camp for children who communicate through Augmentative and Alternative Communication systems (AAC).  It's only for three days, which is perfect. Just enough time to get my feet wet in this division of SLP and Linguistics and actually see this form of communication first-hand. (Well there's multiple forms of AAC from pointing to pictures, to gesturing all the way to simulated speech like Stephen Hawking.) So this would be an exciting camp to be a part of! I'll be e-mailing the director later today about volunteering and let you know when I hear back! Stay tuned!

What'd Ya Say? Wednesday: Awesome Video on Extreme Autism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg

This is such an inspiration, yet sad at the same time. It's hard to hear how others recommended she go to a group home, yet it's all due to Autism. This just shows how determination can really help those suffering from these disorders and how augmentative communication like computers can help give them a voice. We can learn about about what it's like to have Autism (especially at her extreme) while seeing how therapy really helps... and that if one method doesn't try, try again!