Talking and understanding are not mutally exculsive

                        Lets  say  a genius  who  spoke  Latin  were to come to  the United States.  Now  lets   just say  for the sake of the argument that  there was  no one elese  who spoke  Latin.    Is the  genius  still a  genius.    Of  course  many  people would say   he just  needs    needs to  learn  English.       Well  what if there was  a  person  who  could not speak  at all  and  had  no device,  could he  be  a genius?
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It  angers  me as a person living with a speech  delay  when  I hear  someone  who has  no  speech  due to  disabilities,  especially  CP,  and do not have any  device  and  are  placed   as  limited  intellecual  ability.  It  really   angers me    because   the person does not have a  opportunity to  prove  there intellengence one way or the other.  Why am  I pissed  off  let   me  tell you  my story.

 bookgal  princess  and  az We were so cute 

          I was  born   September   1991   a month  prematurely   resulting in mild Cerebral Palsey.  As  a newborn  I could not suck  from a bottle  to well  a feeding tube was  placed  though my thoat so  I could  eat.   When  my parents  took me   home  I  had a  hard  time  breast feeding and my  mom had to pump her milk out  and put it in a bottle.  My  mussles  were soo  weak that   feeding took  forever.




 When  I was a  toddler   I had diffculty communicating. I leaned sign langue  to comincate. I  remeber saying and  signing  craker  in the kitchen.  Useing  signing  I was  able to  express  my wants  and  needs  until my speech   came  along.




 With me and  my  speech  imparment  repeating  words  is   frustrating  espacaly when  no one  understands  me.    I  hear myslef  specaking clearly, My  mind   makes  the ideas  and  the words   that come out   are   fuzzy.   I  rember  saying answers  in class being  told  I was  wrong and   someone said the  same thing  and got it right.      That means that I  got  the anser  right.  


  Now  for me  I have a voice . Its  not  the best  but its  a  voice. As  frustrated  as I must  feel  it must be  ten  times more frustrating  for  people  without a voice.  I feel for those  people  and   can not igmane  being inside  and  not having  a  way to  commicate  and   because of  not being able to comincate  getting  llabled as  worthless.    Having the school system  write  you  off being  isolated  from your peers.  Being  talked to in a high  pitch  voice  every day when  you  are not a  kid. Then  because of  your phiscal limitations  being  labled   as  being as  smart as a  toddler.  That is not  fair  nor is it  right.  I  know  all about  history   understand  spainsh and  english  have a  talent for writing   can  play chess    yet I can not  say the  L  R   K   G sound   esaly.  Does  that  me   not smart  no. Now  igmane   if  i could not talk or  had a device yes  I would not be able  to   write  read and play chess  not because  I   was  not smart  but because i  had  not had  the oppertunites  to  learn.     If  you are reading this and have a child  who can not communicate  my  advice  is   to  go to the ends of the  earth  for your kid, Buy the i pads   the dynvoxs help your  child  find their voice.   If your  the  parent   or  know  someone  whoes  older  who can not commmicate   do the same thing.  The sonner  you  get it the better but do not give up on an older   person in fact you need to get  the information them faster to make up for loss time. In the  meantime  contiue talking to   the person   as  would with   a person as  there  cronolical  age. ( So obsouly  talk  to a baby  like  a baby
 All pepole deves  a chance to connect with others.  It  does not  matter how smart they are everyone  wants  to connect  with  others.    Think about  it  this way   if the person  is  said  to have an intellecual disablity  and you  talk to them about  stuff that  is  to hard for them  then  they it will be  to hard, but if   the child is smart  but has not fond their  voice they will  obseve  it like a sponge.  Please  remeber  speech  is  very  conplex  and hard but   the   spoken word  is   the end result.   The  process  may still be in place.