I Love Babies!!!

The documentary was amazing. After watching the movie I thought I need to get this movie because there is so much to learn from it. It was fascinating to see these four babies grow up in completely different environments, yet they all still had similar developmental tendencies. I noticed while watching the movie my thoughts and beliefs changing as the movie progressed. At first, I felt horrible for the babies and mothers living and growing up in an African country. I saw the lack of clothes, lack of hygiene and living conditions. Slowly I realized I had these feelings because of the society I've lived in that has shaped my beliefs of other cultures. I remembered that I should not compare cultures because I will be looking through the eyes of my own culture. Out of all four countries, I felt that the babies in Africa were the most well behaved, and loved life. The mothers were caring, loving, affectionate, and the babies were perfectly content.
The children growing up in Mongolia however, were misbehaved. The older brother picked on the baby, and repeatedly hit him. Restraining the baby to the bed and to the bed posts I felt was horrible. Then, I slowly remembered that this is the only thing they know and I stopped comparing.
The babies were adorable, and I found myself wanting to take them home with me. They were hilarious, especially the girl in Japan (I believe) who could not stop crying when she was playing. Overall, I felt appreciation for the things I have in my life and the opportunities we have in the United States. The film was excellent and I will most likely be watching it again.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder face many day to day challenges in both school and in the home. Children with FASD are often diagnosed with having attention deficit disorders, social difficulties, and language impairments. Children have difficulty interpreting social information, including social cues. Their delays in school will be the most challenging. The main job of family members is to be supportive and part of a team member among educators and professionals. Families need to be educated on FASD, specifically the effects and strategies to help the child’s learning delays as well as strategies to cope with their responsibility for their child. It is the SLP’s job, as well as other educators to give support to family members and create open communication with each other.
Families of children with FASD face hard challenges. They may become stressed, frustrated, burned out, and feeling like nothing is working. Having a child with a developmental disability can be life changing. This is why it’s essential for families to be part of support groups where they can communicate ideas and share events with people who are in similar situations. Specifically with FASD, children may be out of control, have sudden mood changes, and may not be able to express themselves. These are only a few behaviors that could potentially happen to children with FASD. There are hundreds of difficulties and delays that could persist with children living with FASD. The main concern for children with FASD is lack of communication. Professionals and educators need to teach parents and family members how to effectively communicate with their child. If the child is unable to communicate, then the child will be miserable and this can negatively impact the entire family. There are websites online that family members can go to for additional resources. There are tips online, written from parents with children of FASD, in terms of establishing rules, advice on toilet training, strategies, how to minimize screaming, and family commitment.
When working with families of children with FASD, you may encounter feelings of guilt and depression. One of the possible causes of FASD is consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. It is very possible that when communicating with the parents, they may blame themselves for the condition of their child. Both educators and professionals need to know how to deal with parents who are emotional and blameful for their child’s disorder. This is when we may need to refer families to a psychologist or a counseling service.
Overall, the most important advice professionals need to stress with families, is the accomplishments and strengths the child has. Parents need to understand that their child has every capability to learn and function in the world. Educators also need to stress that without the help of the family; the child may not improve or succeed as successfully. The family members are the child’s best advocates.

Asian culture: Beliefs, values and education

The article was very informative, particularly the background on Asian culture. The article takes an interesting perspective on family issues with education. Most of my background knowledge on family values in Asian culture is minimal. Therefore, majority of the information I received from the article was new and somewhat surprising. For example, adopting children is unpopular in Asian culture because they rely heavily on blood ties. Attaching shame to women who are pregnant and unmarried I feel is awful. In addition, I did not realize how important education is to children in both China and Korea. It seems as though these parents are obsessed with their children’s education, as it marks family social and economic status. There seems to be too much pressure put on these children to perform well enough to get into the few universities that have strong reputations. Because of the lack of “quality” schools, parents will view their child as failures if they have disabilities, or if they are unable to perform. Likewise with the case of Xin who wanted to participate in music classes, but his parents wanted him to be in math or reading classes; areas that he performed poorly at. In this case, I feel that the parents should be more willing to let their child do what they enjoy, instead of putting their child into classes that they dislike so that their families reputation can improve. This obsession with their child’s education is unnerving and selfish. Also, when the children need IEP’s, the parents are unable to interact with professionals. The special education teacher has the main responsibility of developing IEP’s. If a child’s education is so important to the parents, I would expect them to have more involvement in their child’s education plans. According to the article, parents are passive recipients of their child’s education. This doesn’t make sense, when they rely heavily on their child’s education and future success. More involvement in their child’s education would be beneficial to both the child and to the parents.
The article changed the way I may interact with children in the future from Asian culture. The article provides an informative table on how to work with families from Asian cultures. For example, grandparents hold higher authority than parents. When working with grandparents, the professional should express respect. Additionally, the fathers of children with Asian cultures are uninvolved in their child’s education. Therefore, it is important to help fathers understand their role in education and they should be involved in making decisions. When it comes to the parents’ strong passion and reliance on their child’s education, it is important to express concern for that child if he or she has a disability or a learning difference. These are just a few ways to help gain trust and provide information to parents from Asian cultures.
Overall, the article changed the way I thought about Asian culture in terms of education. Many of their beliefs and values are new to me, and I believe it can be a challenge when faced with children and parents of Asian culture. Professionals and educators need the ability to meet the needs of diverse students and their families, especially when their culture is significantly different from ours. The article was very informative and it opened my eyes to other cultures and education.

Temple Grandin Film and J-Mac

On Tuesday, Courtney Stanton, Lauren Resetarits, Lisa Totaro and I went to see the film Temple Grandin which depicts the life of a girl living with autism. After the movie, there was a panel featuring J-Mac, a boy from Rochester who has autism. J-Mac has been on Oprah for playing in a basketball game during high school, when he scored numerous three pointers. Basketball is his dream. The film was very well done. Before the film, I had no knowledge of who Temple Grandin was. Temple Grandin was a girl who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 4. The movie was an excellent way to see in the mind of someone who has autism. Temple Grandin was sensitive to noises and didn’t like being touched by others. More importantly, Temple had an amazing mind and was a magnificent visual thinker. It was amazing to watch Temple come up with contraptions, and perform studies on her own. She could glance at a page, and have the whole page memorized. The message I obtained after watching the film was that everyone should develop and strive to achieve goals in life, regardless if you have a disability or not. The message for parents of children with autism is to never give up and persevere.
The second part of the presentation was a panel with J-Mac, his coach and father, an autism specialist, and a mother of an 18 year old with autism. I thought the panel could have been better. Jason only talked a couple times and I would’ve liked to hear more from him about his remarkable story. A lot of the questions from the audience were personal, and I felt that people should’ve asked more general questions about autism. It was really interesting to hear people from the audience say, “my autistic child,” or “my autistic grandchildren,” instead of putting the child before the disorder, a concept that has been drilled into use this past year. We repeatedly spoke of this concept during case studies as well. I wanted to hear Jason’s perspective on living with autism, but we learned later on during the presentation that he doesn’t like talking about autism. One good question that came from the audience was if the experiences with Temple were similar to what Jason had experiences. Jason’s father replied and said that when Jason was a baby, his ears were very sensitive to noise. His father said a dump truck would go past the house, and Jason would scream. I thought the autism specialist did a nice job answering questions from the audience and she answered a lot of thoughts I previously had. For example, everyone with autism does not necessarily have a unique talent. Some do have extraordinary abilities, but others with autism have harder times functioning. Additionally, it was interesting to hear that the incidence of autism has increased dramatically. Now, autism occurs in 1/150 children, and the ratio of boys to girls is 4:1. One reason for this dramatic increase is both genetic predisposition, and environment.
Overall, I would recommend this presentation to anyone, especially the school age population. Majority of the audience at this presentation were older adults. I feel that people our age and middle and high school students should go to this presentation to become aware of autism disorders and learn from people with autism spectrum disorders. People should be educated at an early age help decrease stigmas and bullying. Both the film and the panel were very informative and brought me insight into the lives of people living with autism.

Traumatic Brain Injuries and YouTube Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4orQo9_rVhA (The Today Show)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuxuKVKem78

Before reading these articles, my knowledge on TBI was minimal. I thought the articles were very interesting to read, especially with patients who have TBI related to combat injuries. The quotes at the beginning of the article, “Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury,” allowed me to see how people are affected by TBI. I thought it was mind blowing, how cognitive impairments resulting from TBI are not recognized often, and it seems as though caregivers don’t have adequate knowledge on TBI as a whole. I also previously thought, that a young child with TBI could bounce back quicker than an adult with TBI because the brain of a young child is still growing. I found it surprising that recent research believes there are greater possibility of long term effects with young children. After reading these articles, I find TBI to be fascinating, and I would love to get experience with patients in hospitals. On YouTube, I found a video from the Today Show that depicts a woman who violently shook her newborn, leaving her with a severe brain injury. Sarah, a 3 year old girl, is currently leaning to speak, and walk. Now, it seems as though parents are putting their child’s medical records online to seek help from doctors in hopes of providing treatments or getting information about their children with brain injuries. Although, I find it scary to share medical records with strangers, I think it’s a good idea, as the website provides a community where people can share similar experiences and offer their knowledge. After watching the YouTube film, it seems as though many doctors are not sure what to do with TBI. The second YouTube video shows an 8 year old boy who was hit by a car while riding his bike, leaving him in a coma. This video really shows that people with TBI, who receive therapy, can improve tremendously.

Inter-Disciplinary Teamwork

After the class discussion on inter-disciplinary teamwork, it seems as though there are many similarities between working with children with autism, selective mutism, and with traumatic brain injuries. The members of an interdisciplinary team are essential when providing adequate treatment and intervention services to the clients. As each group discussed their articles, it seemed as though the members of the interdisciplinary team were very similar. Most of the team members included family members, educators, SLP’s, classmates, 1 to 1 aid, and teacher’s assistant. I feel this list could go on forever. I believe family members are the most important in any intervention plan. Families provide support, and continuing help outside of the school, hospital and clinic. These families know the client best, and with or without the lack of support, can either have positive or detrimental affects on the client. With the right interdisciplinary team, the team members can do more good than harm. They each contribute their own ideas and skills from previous experiences. Team members work together to come up with a game plan and can individually work with the child to help improve the client’s communication skills.

I have noticed when working in my middle school as a teacher’s assistant, the amount of additional teachers in the room. When I was in middle school, the main education teacher was the only one present in the classroom. I remember one teacher who would come into my English class to help one or two students, but it was rare to see additional teachers. We didn’t even have an SLP in the school. Now when I go into work, there may be two assistants per classroom in addition to the teacher, and others coming in and out of the classrooms, pulling children out for either speech, or special education services. Now, the SLP has her own office at the school. From what I have seen, there is more involvement between the teachers and their students. This hopefully makes for a better learning environment and learning outcome for the students.

Class Presentations and positive behavioral support for children with autism

I enjoyed both class presentations today. The first presentation by Kaitlyn and Liz, on writing goals and objectives was very informative. A lot of the information they went over was information we should already know. However, the different parts of goals and the theory behind the rationale is beneficial and a good refresher from Methods of Therapy I. As most of my classmates are in second semester of clinic, we have experience writing goals and objectives and finding materials that could explain why we are working on specific goals for the clients. It seems that many of us in our rationale use frequency of occurrence and the years by which certain sounds or phonological processes are mastered. For this presentation, our group thought velar fronting would be a good phonological process to work on because this process disappears by age 3.
For the second presentation, I thought the knot game was fun. This was a good way to show interprofessional collaboration. It was also a good bonding activity. Unfortunately, our team was unable to break free at the end, but the reason behind this activity was clear. I also liked the topic of special education classroom vs. a normal or mainstream classroom. The topic brings up a lot of good points. What is best for the child? What do the parents prefer? What do the teachers suggest? Will pulling out create more hardships for the child? There are many questions surrounding this topic. Based on Ethan, I think keeping him in a mainstream classroom with an aid would be the best solution because he gets to stay with his friends, is not segregated from the general classroom, and this allows one on one time and help relating to his own personal needs.
The article I read this week was called “Understanding and Intervening with the Challenging Behavior of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” This article was very interesting and informative. I could not stop highlighting information from the article as it seemed that most of the information was relevant and new to me. I thought the article was set up clearly, with the steps of PBS (positive behavior support) laid out nicely. I have never interacted with a child with autism. From what I have heard however, many children with autism have problem behaviors. I’ve also heard these children need strict routines to function socially and need routines for daily activities. From the article, it seems as though the positive behavior support is a great way to set up individualized strategies while reducing specific problem behaviors of the child. This program needs a lot of support from both educators and family. Family involvement seems to be crucial, as they have the knowledge of their child’s behaviors, and can provide insight into their consequences and strategies that they use at home. I also liked the addition of the case study for Benjamin. This example allowed me to go through each steps of this process. I also thought it was interesting that as children learn effective and conventional alternative forms of communication for getting what he or she wants, these challenging behaviors will decrease. Overall I thought this article was really interesting and provided me some insight into the nature and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders.

Elianna and Writing Goals

After watching conversations in class with Elianna, it’s noticeable that Elianna’s speech needs remediation. From calculating mean length of utterance, her first conversation “Home,” had an MLU of 4.41, which was in comparison to a 4 year old. Elianna’s MLU for “School,” was 2.9, which was equivalent to a 3 year old. Lastly, for “Plant,” Elianna’s MLU was 7, which is equivalent to an individual older than 5. These results indicate that she is very inconsistent. Our results indicated that she does not use all of Brown’s morphemes. Children at her age should be using all of them. She was very repetitive. Elianna was good at contractible copulas, using plurals and nouns, and was talkative. Overall, Elianna needs help with intelligibility, using more vocabulary, and generalizing her verb usage. This activity was informative because it allowed students to revisit different assessments. Mean length of utterance, and assessments for pragmatics, semantic and syntax were popular. The goals for Elianna were easy to make because she had a lot of inconsistencies within the conversations. Our goals consisted of better eye contact, use of Brown’s morphemes, and correct responses to –wh questions regarding the purpose of the activity.
This activity tied in nicely with the presentation by Sam and Jackie. This activity allowed the class to develop appropriate goals for Ben. I liked the addition of materials to add to the goals. One aspect of the activity that Dr. Vogler-Elias brought up, were other considerations for answering questions when devising an activity. For answering questions, Ben answers questions correctly in a quiet environment. This is important to think about when devising a lesson plan and planning the activities. Because Ben prefers quiet environments, maybe the lesson can start in a quiet room with just him and the clinician. From there, the clinician can bring in another person, and keep doing this as he gets more comfortable. The clinician may need to give an explanation to Ben that there will be more than one person in a classroom, and that all of the children answer questions. This may decrease the fear or anxiety he may have if this is the cause for his short answers. Also, during the activity, I liked Emily’s idea for the white tabs as a way to gather data during the session. This seems like a good way to take data because it keeps the child from getting distracted and it’s easy and quick.

Principles of Intervention

While reading this article, there were many concepts and ideas that were familiar. In methods of therapy class last semester, we learned the pros and cons of different intervention approaches; child centered, hybrid, and clinician directed. In my opinion, choosing on an intervention approach depends on the client. With younger children, I think a natural environment is important, as this makes carryover easier. However, with clinician directed, the client may produce more target responses and the clinician may get more substantial data. During clinic, we tend to use a lot of drill and kill. This helps us obtain accurate data and shows progress from session to session. But how much do they carry these skills over into school and in the home? The child centered approach may be beneficial for children who perform better in their natural settings. However, in this approach there is no reinforcements which I feel are needed when working with clients. The hybrid approach may be beneficial because this approach focuses on a small set of specific goals and the clinician has some control over the session. Overall, choosing an approach depends on the client’s needs and the clinician’s preference for one over the other.
Before this class, I never heard of the developmental descriptive model of language disorders. However, we use this model with our own clients. We look at the syntactic, semantic, and phonological skills that are in the developmental sequence. We use this information frequently in our rationales for our goals and objectives. Specifically, we look at the sounds that our client’s need remediation on, and we work on earlier occurring sounds first. For example, my client needs remediation on /l/ and /r/, but I decided working on /r/ would not be beneficial because my client is only 5 years old, and /l/ occurs earlier in the developmental sequence. We frequently look at the order children develop skills, and how they acquire these skills.

Single-Subject Design Activity: Mandarin Chinese

My article was the effect of a tutoring package to teach pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese. The article was interesting because I learned some information about the Chinese language. I have heard  in the past that Chinese is one of the hardest languages to learn. I enjoyed this activity because I have not read many single subject design articles, and  I am not used to the language that appeared in the article. The question sheet helped make sense of the article, and it was a good way to learn what the questions meant and what I was trying to look for. For example, I was unsure of what the specific single subject design was. In this case, the single subject was a male American college student who was enrolled in a 1st year Chinese class who demonstrated mastery of writing Chinese. I also enjoyed sharing the stories to each other and putting the articles in our own words. This also helped make sense of the article, and allowed us to learn other single subject designs.

A Heated Debate... And Mandarin Chinese

The debate over standardized vs. informal assessments went really well. The points people were making were valid. From doing this debate, you could really see the controversy over this issue. I realized after thinking about which assessment I would prefer, that I don’t know many types of authentic assessments besides language sampling and observation. I am curious as to what authentic assessments clinicians can perform or use, other than observation in a school setting. I believe both forms of assessment are necessary. Standardized assessments are needed for insurance companies, and authentic assessments allow the clients to demonstrate skills that are realistic and meaningful. They also contribute more to carryover. It was interesting to see my colleagues, first argue for only either standardized or authentic assessment, and then towards the end, some people were drifting to the opposite side. This shows how controversial this issue is, and how difficult it would be to rely on one measure. The video clips were humorous although they did not directly relate to speech. Overall, I thought it was a good turnout.

            My article that I shared with a few students in class was about the effects of a tutoring package (that consists of modeling and prompting), on the pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese. I always knew that Chinese was one of the hardest languages to learn because sounds represent characters and not all sounds have different meanings. That sounds confusing. This case study was performed on a college student who was enrolled in a first year Chinese class. In the class, he had mastered the writing of Chinese characters. The package included pre-tutoring, tutoring and post-tutoring. Results indicated that adding tutoring caused progress in pronunciation of Chinese characters. The results make sense, as getting additional help in any area would be beneficial. Chinese was not offered in my high school until last year. I believe the reason for this was people were not interested in taking Chinese, as Spanish was considered one of the most popular languages to learn. I think the difficulty was also a factor. This article was a good way to learn about single subject design, and the terms that go along with it, such as method of data analysis. I hope to read other similar articles. 

Evidence-Based Practice

                                   

            Evidence- Based practice is crucial in our field, as we try to determine the best treatment plan for our clients. I agree with the integration of the components of evidence-based practice as a means of providing the best treatment.  A clinician would be unable to provide the best treatment for his or her client if one component was missing. However, out of all three components, I believe client values and interests are very important. You can have all of the research and devise a treatment plan, but the client will not improve if he or she is uninterested. Therefore, it is important to know what kinds of toys and games he or she likes, and what their needs are.

            The myth of clinicians staying current on every aspect of clinical practice was one I had a hard time with. I feel as though Nazareth College speech undergrads are highly motivated, and driven to want to learn as much at they can. But I know in reality, there are not enough minutes in a day and enough energy in the human to stay on top of every aspect.

            In terms of evidence-based practice in the schools, I think it can be hard because SLP’s can very easily have a full caseload of students, on top of talking to parents, going to meetings, and planning. When is there time to do anything else? It seems to me that SLP’s have one of the hardest working jobs, yet it's the most fulfilling.  Evidence-based practice is just another add on to our “to do lists.” 

Technology can’t rid us of our SLP’s! (Found a great video on YouTube)

Willie Brown and the Fast ForWord Story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBkJvXsebXI&feature=related

The Fast ForWord-Language program cannot replace SLP’s. Although studies have shown that children have made improvements, the conditions of the study were not realistic, and it won’t be beneficial for carryover. This program can be a great reward after a therapy session, or be instituted into homework, but if children and their families want real solid results, the one on one intensive therapy done by an SLP will always be the best way for these individuals to succeed and make substantial progress.

            I can see the other side of the debate however. The program can be enticing to parents because it keeps the child occupied, as most children love computer games, and there are minimal expenses. This program may be beneficial for children with mild impairments. However, I think as communication majors, these children need routine human interaction. Children will not take computer games seriously, or they may not see it as an educational piece to their learning. If kids are with adults and teachers, they are in a more serious situation; therefore, they will pay attention, do their work, and see the importance behind the learning.

            Although I strongly believe speech therapy should always be with an SLP, there are stories out there in which individuals have improved because of this program.  I found a video on YouTube, about a young boy named Willie Brown who was told he had severe dyslexia, and he would never be able to read.  His teachers did not have the patience, time and resources to help him. Willie went to a different school to try the Fast ForWord Program.  He showed improvement after the 4^th and 5^th weeks of listening to sounds, after reading the newspaper to his grandfather, a task he did every week.  I liked this video because it shows this program can work. Does it replace speech language pathologists? I still don’t believe so. Clients need to know the methods behind the therapy and they need to be taught the strategies in order to produce the sounds correctly. I don't think the program should be ruled out, however Fast ForWord should not be the only means to speech therapy.

"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

I found the film, “Confronting the Myth,” both hysterical and an eye opener. Keith Jones’ presentation was captivating the entire time, as he shared his experiences with us. I found him to be a comedian, yet realistic as well. I think the overall point he was trying to make during the film, was to inform us that we have these false preconceived notions that a person with a disability is helpless. They are unable to speak, hear, and are dependent on everyone else.  He goes on to say that a person with a disability is not human. They don’t exist. I agree with his statement, “They’re not just people with disabilities; they’re mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, teachers, doctors, etc.” Too many of us focus only on the disability, which they use to define that person. This is why we have to say the person with the disability, rather than, “He’s autistic.” Saying that someone is autistic eliminates the human being behind the disability.  One of his myths that struck me was how people with disabilities are unable to go to college. I then put myself in his shoes. If someone ever said that to me, those words would be enough to motivate me to achieve anything. And then I’d go back to that person after finishing college, and shove my diploma in their face. I liked when he said,  "No one has the right to take your dream away.” I believe this is true in any situation, not just with people with disabilities. Something I never knew or thought of before was the two schools of thought for people with disabilities. Some people with disabilities are angry and feel as though it’s a sense of loss, while others are told from the beginning, they could never or never will do something. I feel that it would be harder for someone to acquire a disability later in life, after having experiences that are suddenly taken away from you. I found it shocking to hear Keith explain about his high school experience with his teachers calling them crippled. If you called someone crippled today in school, I feel as though it would not go over very well, as times have changed. It was even more interesting to find that Keith and his friends did not think of themselves as handicapped. They were teenagers, in high school and graduating, but they never thought of themselves as cripples or handicapped, because it did not define them. My favorite two lines from the video were, “stupidity should be a disability,” and “disabilities challenge people’s morality.” Although I find the first quote to be funny, I think people are poorly educated with the topic of disabilities, and how to act around people with disabilities. I was never educated in high school and up until college did I learn about people with disabilities. I think it would be beneficial for children to learn about disabilities starting in high school or even earlier. The second quote was a favorite of mine because I think it ties back to those preconceived notions. People have previously thought those with disabilities as being dependent, unable to speak, unable to go to college, hold a job, have kids, etc. With the changing times, I hope people are becoming more aware of how they should treat people with disabilities, and seeing the human first, instead of the disability. 

Journal Entry 1: The Bridge, "R Word," and much more...

            After reading “The Bridge,” and the controversy that exists with the satire Tropic Thunder, I agree with the article, in which the movie is very offensive to people with disabilities. However, I think protesters and self advocates go too far, and make it a bigger deal than it has to be. Protestors or persons with disabilities are allowed to be upset at the movie, but these people ridicule the actors of the movie, and Hollywood. I agree with Neil Miller from CNN, who says that you can be upset over this movie, however holding Hollywood accountable for this issue is going too far. Perhaps I feel this way because I am an individual without disabilities and I am unable to relate, but the movie is a satire. A satire uses irony and sarcasm to expose or “make fun of” social and government issues, types of people, etc. The film Tropic Thunder is a satire; therefore the directors and producers are allowed to do what they please. In the movie, sarcasm was used to attacked people with disabilities. I do feel as though the movie is very offensive, but that is why it’s called a satire. If you do not agree with what the movie is portraying, then don’t watch it. I agree with what Tim Shriver of the Special Olympics said, in that films can become a part of our culture and people tend to repeat lines that they’ve heard from movies. This reminds me of the movie Napoleon Dynamite. Although the film was not a satire, words like “Heck yes,” and lines like, “Tina you fat lard, come and get it,” were repeated in my high school all the time. Lines from movies are frequently repeated, and many can become offensive, whether it’s intentional or not. In the section, called “The Power of Words Plays Out on the Radio,” Michael Savage describes children with autism. His words to describe these children, such as “brat,” and “moron” made my skin crawl. If I was an individual with autism, I would be furious.


        Katherine Snow believes “people first language” is important. This is because there are too many instances when people talk about the problems or disabilities people have rather than positive aspects of that person. When this happens, people are creating negative images about someone. Instead, the person should always come before the disability. People with disabilities should gain the same respect and courtesy as everyone else.


Some examples of non person first are “She is autistic,” “She has a problem hearing,” or Ben can’t talk.”


       I used to say the “R” word when I was in middle school. However, I did not know what the word really meant. As I got older, I used it much less because I had a better understanding of what it meant and how it could possibly make others feel. Since I’ve been at school, I have never used the “r” word because as a speech major, you are more than likely going to interact with people who have disabilities. If I heard others repeatedly say the word, I am not sure if I would go up to those individuals and tell them how inappropriate, rude and hurtful the word can be. I feel as though it is my place to say something, however when put into those situations, I may not have the guts to go up to a stranger.