The Quiet Crisis Next Door

Tag: Mixed Receptive Expressive Language Disorder

  • A Dose Of My Pandemic Pressures

    I’m starting a bit later than usual to plunk out my thoughts this week because I had to spend some time in one of my happy places to insulate my emotional reserves some for this topic. Which of course, should serve as a warning that I may be about to type some things that some…

  • Public Comments and Open Letter on Proposed Changes to the AAC Policy for Division of Developmental Disabilities Recipients

    Earlier this week I submitted comments to the Division of Developmental Disabilities as part of a legally mandated public comment period for proposed changes to the policy that governs prior authorization for assistive speech device technology, or AAC. For a while now my posting schedule has been every Friday, however I felt like for those…

  • Will We Look Away?

    A couple of years ago, I was driving Tony to one of his many therapy appointments. As I pulled to a corner of an exit ramp, I lowered my window and held out some cash to a gentleman standing at the corner with a sign. He quickly met my eyes and then looked down, back…

  • “Pray To Whatever Deity You Look To…”

    I’m not going to say who left the cup of water by my laptop, or who knocked it over. Neither actions were done by me, but I don’t consider either of those actions to represent the biggest misfire in this chain of events. I will admit to swearing when I saw what happened, and for…

  • “Rumor Has It”

    For several years now I have been hearing so many stories about habilitation therapy in Arizona. “Rumor has it,” some families of older kiddos who lost their habilitation (hab) therapists and couldn’t find a replacement quickly had their authorized hab hours taken away from them. Which then makes it much harder to find a replacement,…

  • Judging the Parents Shouldn’t be a Spectator Sport

    Many years ago, I had a friend with advanced degrees and the kindest heart. This person needed significant support with activities of daily living. I know the level of support required because I was trusted enough as a friend to be asked to help provide those services more than two decades ago so that the…

  • What These Eyes See

    When Tony and I have gone out into public spaces, eyes are almost always upon us. The eyes of those who saw our screaming son rip an earring out of my ear when I was putting him on my shoulders outside of a local Safeway a few years ago, and mutely watched as I squatted,…

  • On Ability, Access, and Representation

    Sometimes talking to anyone can be a tricky thing. I feel like an apology just as readily needs to grace my lips as anything else I could possibly say, because often when I have personally given offense, it was most certainly not intentional. What one person in a group finds offensive another does not, and…

  • R.I.P. Speech Device

    This is one of those weeks where I was initially planning on writing about an entirely different subject. I am going to move that previously planned post to a different week because I feel current events require a change in plans. Today, Tony’s original speech device died (this is the device he’s been using since…

  • Waking Up To The New Norm

    This is a post where I feel almost as if a leaf-blower is swooshing through the folds of my brain, whisking away words like decaying leaves and leaving me uncertain how to best proceed. Originally, I planned for a different topic. However, I do think local events of the past week need to be addressed.…