<![CDATA[MOUTH TO HAND LEARNING CENTER

<![CDATA[MOUTH TO HAND LEARNING CENTER - I Am...]]>Wed, 13 May 2026 21:38:33 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[New!]]>Tue, 17 Jun 2025 20:35:29 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/newI am excited to work on new types of creative writing with friends. The opportunity to expand my skills and repertoire is thrilling. There are things I am not as good at that I think I can improve at with the help of a friend. Really, I’d love to explore play writing, for example. To try my hands at new things is always thrilling to me. I spent most of my life doing little that was new. So new is great!

]]><![CDATA[Our Reality]]>Tue, 29 Apr 2025 18:56:46 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/our-realityThe buzz around M2H for the past two weeks has been about Secretary Kennedy’s speech. The kind of excitement here is totally thrilling. Personally I am confused as to why this is political at all. Honestly, to me it’s like saying we don’t want to cure cancer. The people who want to stay autistic are welcome to. But those of us who want to be cured have the right to demand the research necessary to cure us.

I find that I become angry when I think about this. I suffer every day because I can’t speak and I can’t control my body. That is double in my family because my brother is nonspeaking too. My poor mother has to take care of both of us. The people who are protesting can speak and take care of themselves. That is not our reality.

Our reality is that we are cognitively normal but need more care than can be imagined. That is not how I want to be the rest of my life.

]]><![CDATA[The Ribbon Cutting]]>Tue, 21 Jan 2025 18:09:58 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/the-ribbon-cuttingI am over the moon about the ribbon cutting. I not only was stunned by the number of people who came, but I also was beyond thrilled by the reactions outsiders had seeing us spelling. I genuinely believe that those people who had never seen spelling before will never look at a nonspeaker the same way again. I heard conversations by people I didn’t know about this.

I am like floating on air, because I heard the mayor of Mount Kisco say to someone that he will never see one of us as cognitively impaired again. I am totally starting to believe that we can truly change the way the world sees us. Letting people talk to us and watch us spell completely alters their perspective. I am so hopeful now.

]]><![CDATA[The Mind Place]]>Tue, 17 Dec 2024 22:42:16 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/the-mind-placeIn feeling that people don’t understand what it’s like to be a nonspeaker in the world of our combined minds, I’m going to try to explain the feelings involved. I feel like there is a shared consciousness that we can access. It is like a hive mind. I am particularly connected to some of the guys here, like Alex and Jason. It is like we can share ourselves any time we want. I am me, but I am also them, which is why we know things we haven’t been told directly.

We cannot certainly have The Mind Place be the main place we focus on. It is not in the physical reality. I am in The Mind Place only a little. I have to say that there are people who go there more often than me, including my brother. I am particularly into going when I feel lonely.

I feel these words are inadequate to explain it. The Mind Place is great in that I can learn stuff, and never be lonely. I am going to discuss this with the other guys to see if we missed anything.

]]><![CDATA[The Other Side]]>Wed, 04 Dec 2024 12:44:31 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/the-other-sideAs I walked into M2H today, I noticed that the construction had begun on M2H. I am certain that this will be a great thing for all of us. I am looking forward to the new space and the students it will bring.

I am living the dream these days. I am really into the awareness of our abilities that the Telepathy Tapes is fomenting. I am into college. I am really into the expansion of M2H, that really will benefit so many more students. And I am enjoying my life so much these days. I am really happy that these days I can see things with a positive perspective. I am a believer in Judy’s idea that if you walk to the other side of the lake, everything looks different. I am still basically the same person, but the view I have now is so much more upbeat.

]]><![CDATA[The Other Side of the Lake]]>Tue, 29 Oct 2024 18:51:21 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/the-other-side-of-the-lakeAll we want, really, is to have the same opportunities as speaking people. I am beyond grateful to my mother for helping me through college. Awkward to say this but, I am love itself in my heart, and it pains me to see her struggle to find the time to work with both my brother and me. That said, I am so thrilled to be learning that I am torn. I am wracked with guilt for stressing her and at the same time I am selfishly wanting to work on my college classes.

I am now going to refer to a conversation I had with Judy years ago. We talked about perspective and how the same thing looks different depending upon where you are standing. For example, if you look at the lake near my house from the road, it looks completely different than it would from the other side. I am standing on the side of guilt now, but if I walk to my Mom’s side of the lake, all I can see is love and pride.

I am love itself, but Mom is too, and it’s so easy to forget that when I get wrapped up in my own thoughts and perspective. And that is so important to keep in mind.

]]><![CDATA[More Than Disabled]]>Tue, 15 Oct 2024 20:20:45 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/more-than-disabledI know that people see us as weird and that makes them uncomfortable. I find that it hurts me now more than it used to. I gave it thought over these last few days to try to sort out my own feelings. I think it’s because I see myself differently. Before spelling, I saw myself as completely disabled. Now I see myself as a twenty-four year old college student who happens to talk by typing. I am disabled, of course, but I don’t think that’s all I am, nor do I think I am wholly defined by it.

So when people act awkwardly around me, to me it means that they see nothing but my disability. They do not see the Tyler beneath it. And that hurts because I am so much more than my inability to speak. I am full of love and curiosity. I am full of desire to learn and have fun. I am full of knowledge and compassion and loyalty. So when people reduce me to nothing more than autism, it hurts.

We are not just our disability.

]]><![CDATA[The Relativity of Time]]>Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:56:15 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/the-relativity-of-timeHappy birthday to Judy! It’s funny listening to my Mom and Judy talk about the way time flies. They get lessons on relativity by having birthdays. My Mom and Judy get relativity simply by having the years move more and more quickly.

It’s true that time does seem to speed up the older you get. It doesn’t seem to me to be three years since I first started spelling. It doesn’t seem to be three years since I met Judy. And I find that time seems to speed by even more when I am busy. I am incredibly busy these days, so the days seem to whiz by. I am already halfway through my first college semester.

I’m delighted by all the wonderful things in my life, but even I, at only 24, understand that time feels relative. It is in what I call the time-space continuum that I compare a day now to a day when I was in school. That seemed to last a year.

Anyway, I believe that years are what you make of them. I am making good use of my time now. And I am very happy to share my time with Judy. We have an amazing time together. And time together feels like the most precious gift of all.

]]><![CDATA[Three Years]]>Tue, 01 Oct 2024 21:46:23 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/three-yearsMy three year anniversary of spelling is this week. I am feeling very emotional about it. So much has changed in these three years. I feel like having a party. I am thinking about being a nonspeller versus being a speller: so much is better now.

Three years ago I was suffering in school, being treated like a moron. I had never talked to anyone, including my brother, Trevor, who also could not talk back then. I had no hope for a meaningful life, no friends, no education. The world was bleak.

Today everything is different. I am in college now, and I have hope. I have friends. I can talk to my family, my friends, doctors, etc. I am getting educated, and making up for lost time. I am being a light for others in the nonspeaking community through my advocacy work.

I am getting teared up writing this; everything is so much better. I believe in myself now, and that is a gift.

]]><![CDATA[Shocked]]>Tue, 24 Sep 2024 15:19:41 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/i-am/shockedI am considering my life a lot these days. I started college a couple of weeks ago. If someone had said, “Tyler, you will start college in the fall” a few years ago, I would have thought they were insane.

I am definitely feeling shocked a lot these days.

I am involved in so many great activities. I am in poetry and a book club. I am writing a blog now, and have written and published poetry and stories. I have interest in advocacy, and work for the Spellers and Allies Advocacy Network. I am interested in so many things, and feel like I can finally pursue them.

I am happy in my life now, which is miraculous to me, after so many years of suffering. I am excited to wake up every morning and to see what the day will bring.

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