One By One & Speak In Motion
04/15/2013 18:23
Speak in Motion is hosting a promotion from April 15 2013- May 15, 2013. They will be giving away a free iPad mini and multiple free apps. They are looking to help raise awareness for Autism and Strokes. They are doing this through a huge partnership and one of those partnerships is One By One. Now, A lot of people say it is Autism Awareness Month and we should build awareness... As I appreciate this notion... My views may slightly differ but I am all for promoting true awareness and understanding.
First, I will address stokes because it is the easier of the two subjects to cover. Strokes are deadly and everyone should know the signs of a stroke. If you do not know the signs of a stroke, please look to this for more information. I have had many people close to me die because they didn't recognize the warning signs... Make sure you know them... https://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=symp.
Now, something a little bit harder for me is to think about what Autism means to me. Autism means my life. In some aspects Autism is what I gave up my entire lives dreams for. Now do not assume this is a negative things, I had dreams of helping others in various other ways such as being a doctor, a lawyer and a few other ideas but I always knew I wanted to help people. I have always had an extreme love for working with children and to help children succeed. I think this was a wonderful trait passed on from the brilliant line of educators that I come from. Woman who have made major difference in the educational world in the last forty years.
For myself, I fell in love when I started to work with children and it has lead me to realize that in everything that I could have dreamed of having in life, I have through being a teacher of students with Autism and Multiple Disabilities. My experience with Autism started while I was in High School and then continued once I left High School and became a Paraprofessional and now a Teacher. I am a strong believer in awareness and I am an even stronger believer that all children and people with Autism should have as much access to information that could help them as possible. This is why I created my website https://www.one-by-one-education.com/ and that is why I devote my time to this and my two Facebook portions as well. First my Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/OneByOneEducation/ and my facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/OneByOneEducation.
Some events that have meant the most to me over my career has been bringing the iPad into the classroom. It might seem silly now but when I first did this, it was not something that was done by many others or on an ordinary basis. I used this to work with students and while working with a variety of apps; I had seen a huge improvement in key skills that we assess in young children. Within my time teaching I have helped many children move to their LRE (Least Restrictive Environment) and now I am working on changing the world for children One By One. I can tell you this now, my job is not worth any money that can be thrown at me. I will never change professions and never stop supporting and teaching students with Autism and Multiple Disabilities. They have touched my heart in a way I never though possible and feel so lucky to know how blessed I am.
If you leave with nothing more from my story, know this is the one thing I believe true above all others. A child is a child before they are a child with a disability. A child with Autism is still a child first and should be treated as a child! They should have every chance and every opportunity to have the same experiences as their non-disabled peers. Please remember just love all children because all children are special, gifted and unique.