<![CDATA[MOUTH TO HAND LEARNING CENTER

<![CDATA[MOUTH TO HAND LEARNING CENTER - The Poet in Me]]>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 12:57:00 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[Someday Soon]]>Thu, 09 Oct 2025 17:54:14 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/someday-soonThere is something in the air lately. I am not sure what it is, but I feel it more than ever. It not only feels like change, it feels like hope. It’s the growth of Mouth to Hand combined with many factors: the fact that outsiders can come into this place and see us for who we really are; the fact that more and more of us can sit and take college classes (including me!); the fact that more and more of us are living better and better lives; and that the established paradigm is starting to crumble.

I am mostly thrilled that I am writing this post after learning that my friend, Alex, will be on a nonspeakers panel at the big Children’s Health Defense conference in a month. It is amazing to me that an organization that has nothing to do with autism education would have a prime time spot devoted to nonspeakers. We are starting to be seen as distinct from the other kind of autism, I hope.

Being this kind of autism has its own strengths and weaknesses. We are kind of not understood by most people. I really hope that someday soon I can walk into Chipotle or the supermarket and hear someone say, “There’s one of those genius nonspeakers!”

]]><![CDATA[We Can]]>Thu, 04 Sep 2025 18:05:06 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/we-canOn Wednesday I started college. It’s only one class, but…it’s a start. I have to say, it was awesome to be sitting in a real classroom with neurotypical people. I was well prepared by Mouth to Hand, fortunately, since in school I never had to do anything. I felt normal - like, I was doing what normal guys my age would be doing.
I am actually pretty emotional about it. Who would have foreseen this, even a year ago? (I was beating the hell out of myself and my parents a year ago.) Now I am sitting in a classroom learning about psychology.
I am sharing two lessons I’ve learned from all this. Firstly, never, ever give up because things can get better. Secondly, we are so very capable when we are given the tools to succeed. I was given typing, by Judy, and the right medicine by my psychiatrist. That was all I needed to live my dream.
So give us the tools we need, and then wind us up and watch us go. We CAN do it.

]]><![CDATA[Judy's New Schedule]]>Thu, 05 Jun 2025 20:41:58 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/judys-new-scheduleI am spacey today. I am struggling to formulate coherent thoughts. I am not sure why, but it may impact my ability to be as articulate as I want to be.

I want to write to say that I fully support Judy’s decision to alter her schedule. I know it was hard for her to make it, and I can feel her stress over it. I kind of feel though that she had to do it. There are so many of us now; and there will be more and more. That is beyond great news! I want the newbies to get a chance to learn and write too.

I am really great being in a creative writing class with my friends and I welcome the opportunity to do group work. I am absolutely great with expanding my experiences as a writer. And I want Judy to have the time to make Mouth to Hand even greater than it already is.

So yeah, as far as I’m concerned, the new schedule rocks.

]]><![CDATA[Musings On Keats]]>Fri, 23 May 2025 15:14:20 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/musings-on-keatsIn my poetry class we have started learning about Keats. I am so excited about his poems. So far we have read two of his odes, Nightingale and Grecian Urn. What I love so much is the artistry: things like his use of alliteration and consonance; metaphor; imagery; assonance; symbolism, etc. They’re like a super fun puzzle to solve, his poems. In our last class, Judy spent most of our class showing us cool things in Nightingale. It was like the most amazing thing ever to see how carefully constructed it is.

That’s the greatest thing about poetry. If you think about it as the music of language, it’s easy to see it like a symphony. The words are all like different instruments, intertwined together to make it meaningful and beautiful. Shelley and Keats were master composers. I cannot get over how their poems are so complex underneath even seemingly simple words.

This beauty makes my heart hurt in a good way.

]]><![CDATA[Things May Be Changing]]>Thu, 15 May 2025 19:28:19 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/things-may-be-changingI am feeling totally mixed in my emotions lately. On the negative side, I am upset by the fights happening everywhere. I hate all the vitriol being thrown at Secretary Kennedy. I am sick and tired of people wasting time and energy fighting when so many people are sick and getting sicker. I am sick and tired of ASHA telling me I am not communicating when I use my letter board.

I am just tired of the bullshit.

But I am also feeling a strange sense of positivity. I’m not sure why. It may be that I feel like things are finally changing. It may be that I felt like my voice was heard when I learned that Secretary Kennedy read my blog post. It may be that Mom and Dad are looking at trying to help me get my high school diploma. It may be that my parents listened to me and that makes me feel so empowered. Maybe it’s that people in the M2H community are working together to get things done.

For example, there was a bad bill that might have been passed in the New York State Assembly. But many M2H families got together to stop that from happening. It’s in process now, but at least it has a chance of not going through in its bad form. So it owes its improved language to M2Hers.

It just feels like M2H is getting a louder and louder voice as it grows. I feel like we are growing into a power to be reckoned with. All my life I felt completely powerless…so to feel like I’m not, feels great.

]]><![CDATA[My Right to a Cure: Reflections on RJK Jr's Speech]]>Thu, 17 Apr 2025 20:36:22 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/my-right-to-a-cure-reflections-on-rjk-jrs-speechYesterday Robert Kennedy JR made what I believe is an historic speech. He showed that the latest figures are one in thirty-one children are autistic. One in twenty boys. There are no words that can convey the tragedy that has happened in this country. While the numbers worsened decade after decade, no one did anything to stop it.

I am one in twenty. My male friends here at Mouth to Hand are one in twenty. You cannot understand the suffering autism can cause if you don’t live with it every day. We suffer not only because we can’t speak, but because we have such severe comorbidities that too often go untreated because everything is attributed to autism. We hurt ourselves and people we love, and we can’t help it. We destroy property and we destroy our families’ lives, and we can’t help it.

I won’t even get into the emotional toll on us and our families.

And while we suffer, and while our families desperately try to find help, what have we been given by our country? - the label of bigots, because we want a cure. No, autism is not a beautiful thing, and no, my parents and I are not bigots because we want this nightmare to end.

If you don’t want the cure, don’t take the pill. But don’t stop me from swallowing it. The Robert Kennedy speech made me finally feel seen and heard. Maybe now there is a chance for help to come to those of us who want it.

]]><![CDATA[Happiness]]>Thu, 10 Apr 2025 19:21:54 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/april-10th-2025This past month may have been the best of my life. I get teared up just thinking about how much knowing Judy has made a difference in my life. There are no words that can explain how much better I feel now that I am on medicine.The fact is that it was Judy helping me yell at my parents that made them listen. It is like I am reborn.

This month also had Alex’s bar mitzvah in it, which is the single best day of my life. It was transformative, being in the synagogue. And then there was the gala. So many fun and amazing things!

I am happier than I have ever been.

]]><![CDATA[The Most Wonderful Day]]>Thu, 27 Mar 2025 18:06:46 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/the-most-wonderful-dayOn Saturday I went to my friend, Alex’s, bar mitzvah. It was one of the best days of my life. The service was one of the most beautiful things ever. He did something I would have thought impossible: he stood on stage for over two hours and was completely regulated the whole time. I really would never have thought that one of us could do that.

The thing is, my body was completely relaxed the whole time. The energy in that synagogue was like nothing I ever have experienced before. Not kidding when I say this, but God was with us in that place. I have never felt that close to God before. The experience has changed me.

I have been thinking about my goals. I am looking at Alex and all he is doing, and it makes me believe I can do things too. I believe in myself now because of him. I am really smart, and now I want to get my diploma. I feel like I can do things now that I never thought I could because, taking medicine to calm down, has me in a great place.

Alex so inspires me to try to do things I thought impossible. The thing I keep thinking is that he and Judy act like his disability doesn’t matter. They just plow ahead and do stuff fearlessly. So I am thinking now, maybe being disabled doesn’t matter as much as I thought it did. Maybe I can do things too.

I am going to try.

]]><![CDATA[The Magic Place]]>Thu, 20 Feb 2025 21:35:08 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/the-magic-placeBeing an M2Her is a blessing on so many levels. I am so lucky that my Dad is willing to drive hours each way twice a week to bring me. You really need to come here to fully understand. This is seriously the happiest place on earth. You walk through the door and BOOM! The joy and love are like a tidal wave washing over you. You cannot imagine how great it feels unless you’ve experienced it. Your heart aches in a wonderful way, like it’s trying to hold all that happiness and love and is stretched to fit it all.

This place has a magic to it. I am serious. It’s like it helps you to feel more normal. It’s like you suddenly forget that you’re supposed to be super impaired. You just get so involved in the fun and interesting things that for awhile you completely forget that you are autistic and nonspeaking. So we act more normal because we are treated like we are normal. That feeling of being normal, combined with the love and happiness is truly the best feeling on earth.

]]><![CDATA[A Prayer]]>Thu, 12 Dec 2024 19:07:14 GMThttps://www.mouthtohandlearning.com/the-poet-in-me/a-prayerIt enters my mind this time of year that there are so many nonspeakers less fortunate than we M2Hers. Many nonspeakers still cannot talk; in fact, most have never even heard of spelling. Really, it is hard to think about them because it is traumatizing, thinking about them locked in the silent cage. I know that Judy is expanding to get more students into M2H, and that she also works with Elizabeth Bonker and Ginnie Breen, on the C4A Academy, to try to reach as many nonspeakers as possible. But there are still so many of us who will never talk.

In spite of everything I have been through in my life, I know that I am lucky. I have an amazing family, and I have M2H and Judy. I have the ability to talk, write and learn. I have so many friends, and chances for fun.

So let’s all take a moment to pray for all the nonspeakers who are less fortunate than we. May they all be given voices.

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