Catching up with Logan

09/18/2026

Reminder - Logan is nonspeaking and autistic.

Since we started our spelling journey, we’ve often heard about the “decades of research against it” - there’s not decades of research against spelling to communicate but I’ll try not to digress there.

But I always point to our lived experiences. Logan told us about exactly a year ago he wanted to start piano. It has been a journey for sure. He’s far from a concert - or even independent - pianist. But he’s well beyond me being able to help him. I’ll be honest and say that’s not hard - but I have done plenty of my own learning sitting in lessons with him 😂.

But also - last night he sang one of his favorite Disney tunes as he worked on playing. It struck me how well he was articulating all his words. He could never sit down with me and share this many words in a way we could understand his articulation. Music is powerful and teaching him so much 🎶❤️

09/08/2026

We’ve been really busy and haven’t had a chance to do much of an update since school started back. Last Thursday night we were all excited to be back in our happy place.

Two years ago when Logan first became an open speller, we learned he loved Mizzou football (and really - he loves going to all kinds of sporting events). As Logan’s parent - that was always a point of grief for me when he was younger. We are huge sports fans and have had season football tickets for many, many years. We always thought that would be something we would share with him and it was hard when it wasn’t. Or at least we only thought it wasn’t. Sharing football season with him has become one of our greatest joys! So here’s to season 3!

To bury the lede - Logan says we win 10 games this year. I hope he’s right - that will be one heck of a season if we do! 🐯🏈

08/25/2026

Logan started in as a senior in high school today! As I took his picture he said “king of the castle!” That’s right - he’s a senior and they rule the building 😂.

This next year has a lot of uncertainty. IDEA says he should have the opportunity to continue his schooling until 21. But the reality is - that’s incredibly rare occurrence in our school district. So we are uncertain what path lies ahead in the next 9 months.

Logan typed, “I am not ready for school to be over. Too much good happens at school to not go.” He loves to learn. He loves the social aspect. We pray everyone has a good to start to school and gets to experience all the good that can happen at school!

08/11/2026

A good podcast with a leading researcher

Here's what we know: assisted methods to teaching typing have been highly controversial in the field of speech-language pathology, and simultaneously have been passionately defended by many non-speaking Autistics. In a recent paper, researcher Vikram Jaswal, along with a team including Dr. Kristie P...

08/07/2026

Logan has had an excellent couple of weeks at piano lessons. Regulation has been easier with improved accuracy. Criticisms of spelling methods have been really amplified lately and when I watch him play the piano it’s hard not to think of his critics. Logan asked for piano - we would have never pursued without spelling. His enjoyment learning should speak for itself when critiquing the authorship of his request. He loves it and works so hard to be perfect - which can be its own monster. We also never explicitly taught him to read music. Yet he does it so well. The motor coordination and keeping rhythm can be difficult due to apraxia - but his ability to read and hear music are undeniable.

08/07/2026

Excellent message ❤️

08/04/2026

Iatrogenic Harm - a term I had not heard until this week when reading a blog from David Kaufer and then a subsequent blog from Judy Chinitz at Mouth to Hand Learning Center.

Iatrogenic harm is when treatments can unintentionally contribute to illness or disability. I find the discussion fascinating and thought provoking.

When Logan was 7 years old, we were threatened with dismissal from speech therapy by our local autism clinic. Logan wasn't making progress and they threatened to report to insurance as it they viewed it unethical to continue charging his therapy appointments to insurance. That was 10 years ago. Our family still carries hurt and disdain for that decision. We felt like we were sent away with nothing else to consider. But in hindsight, that therapy was causing him harm. They were inflexible on their delivery of the service. They most certainly didn't treat him as apraxic and instead treated him as lacking cognition.

Logan and many of his peers have spent years being treated as cognitively unable instead of acknowledging the motor disability that has existed. I remember when Logan was small - he walked and crawled and did all the things on time but then motor regression along with a stagnation in development. I remember having a friend who is a PT look at him - "he doesn't jump" I told her. His feet never left the ground. And I found that odd that a toddler who developed completely typically, until he didn't, couldn't jump. But no one seemed concerned with that tidbit except for me. Even as a first time mom, I knew he should jump at age 2 after learning to walk before 12 months. The two facts were not congruent to me to then say nothing was wrong.

Acknowledging Logan's motor impairments has changed our lives and his as well. In his early years of therapy, treating him with a lack of cognition and not as a child with a motor impairment likely harmed him or at minimum held him back.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-209321893

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