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AMAZINGLY INTERESTING

BY ANTHONY PICCOLINO

Many of us here at M2H love music, but no one loves it as much as me. Perhaps that is a big claim, but I believe it to be true. I love music so much that I want to devote my life to it and become a music critic some day.

I am the child of restaurant owners and I eat maybe six foods in the world. I am telling you this explain how raging is my OCD. So I put the damn thing to use and OCD on music. I’d bet anything that Carl Orff himself listened to Carmina Burana less often than me.

Anyway, my blog will be about how amazingly interesting I am.

6/5/2026 0 Comments

CP Woes

Most of my friends cannot talk yet with their parents CPing. That includes me. All of us want to talk to our families in the worst way. But it’s not happening for a variety of reasons.

In my case, it’s my Mom’s noisy brain. She is always multitasking somewhere inside her head. All of you think you are quieting your minds, but you’re not. There is so much noise it drowns out our thoughts.

My Mom is naturally a chaotic person. (She prefers I say frenetic.) She works hard to regulate herself, but it’s hard for her.

What various people who are nonspeaking say is remarkably similar: the regulation of the nonspeaker depends on the regulation of the CP.

I know at some point there will be better technology to help us talk. That will change everything. What it will look like, I don’t know. But it will happen and that is a cheering thought…because I, for one, can’t wait to talk all day, like speakers can.

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5/4/2026 0 Comments

Dreams Coming True

On Friday, I finally had my birthday present. I went to Carnegie Hall to see Yuja Wang play. In case you’re a Philistine, and don’t know who she is: Yuja is the hottest pianist ever and my girlfriend. She may be unaware of the latter fact, but she sure as shit isn’t unaware of the former. She was dressed in the slinkiest clothes ever, and actually changed at intermission. It was a feast for the ears and eyes.

She is smokin’.

She played Prokofiev’s Concerto #2, and Chopin. It actually was breathtaking to watch her play. So all in all, that was the greatest birthday present ever.

Now that I’ve done that, I’m moving on to my next goal: I’m going to the Met with Alex. I am thinking anything by Puccini.

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5/4/2026 0 Comments

Podcast: Amplifying Nonspeaking Voices

My name is Anthony Piccolino, and I am 22 years old. I began spelling when I was about 18 and still in school. I am going to tell you a story that illustrates one of the reasons why spelling is so critically important.

I was abused by neurotypical students, who were taking photos of me and other disabled students peeing in the bathroom. They were posting the photos online. I couldn’t tell anyone, of course…and they were only doing it to those of us who couldn’t talk. It was unbelievably traumatizing to me and to my family.

Now I can talk. Now I can tell people if something is wrong.

And more than that: spelling has opened up my world in ways I couldn’t even have imagined. I am learning and having fun. I have friends. I’ve gotten to do things I love because I am able to tell my Mom what I’m interested in. Because I am interested in ancient Greece, we went there, and I got to see the Parthanon. Because I am in love with the super hot pianist, Yuja Wang, my Mom is taking me to see her.

So what do I say to those who would deny me this method of communication? My life was hell before I could talk. I was reduced to having photos of my private parts put up on Facebook. Now I wake up every day smiling, excited to see what the day will bring. My life won’t be wasted with me whiling away the years in daycare, waiting to die.

All of us want to contribute to this world; all of us want our lives to have some meaning. Now we can.

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1/30/2026 0 Comments

Gala Excitement is Building

The M2H gala is still 2 ½ months away, and I am already excited. It is the best night of the year. For those of you who have never been, you are in for a treat.

The most wonderful part is Judy’s presentation of us. It always makes me emotional in so many ways: I feel the most wonderful combination of pride and happiness. The pride is twofold: I feel proud to be an M2Her, and proud of everything I have accomplished over the course of the year. To be celebrated for who we really are, not for who we never were, is glorious.

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12/5/2025 1 Comment

The Times, They Are a’Changin’

I have been thinking about how the world is changing. I have been spelling for only about three years, but in that time, I have seen improvements. When I started at M2H, there were probably about thirty of us. Now there are a hundred. That means that not only are people hearing about this, they believe it is real. What is remarkable about that is that this is in spite of ASHA’s continued protests.

That is heartening.

I sat there watching my best friend, Alex, on stage at the sold-out CHD Conference, and thought, “Wow! That is another thousand people who now believe in spelling.” (Judy just told me that another thousand people watched online.)

It won’t be long before the Communication Bill of Rights is passed in New York, I hope. That would mean that we could demand to use our letterboards and keyboards in schools and other government-run institutions. The thing is, that would mean that the children in schools might not need to suffer the way we older guys did.

So yeah, the world is slowly changing. I wonder what the next three years will bring?

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10/28/2025 1 Comment

The Downside of Empathy

It is fact that we feel everything at a higher level than speakers. We have more sensitive hearing, more sensory differences, and more heightened empathy. So when one of us is ok, we are all not ok.

Recently one of my good friends had to take a break from Mouth to Hand. He was having issues similar to mine. When Alex and I were unable to come here, everyone suffered. That is also the case with my friend: until he is ok, I can’t feel really happy. The thing is, I know in my heart that he’ll be ok eventually, and he’ll be back. So I try to comfort myself with that knowledge.

What really makes us upset is when people we love leave. We utterly love our friends.

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10/3/2025 0 Comments

The Conference Next Month

The really most amazing thing is happening next month. My best friend, Alex, is going to be on a panel of nonspeakers at the Children’s Health Defense conference in Austin, Texas. Attending this conference are important people, like Senator Rand Paul. We here at M2H are beyond thrilled. One of our own is being totally showcased! And to have all those important people see nonspeakers typing LIVE is the greatest thing ever.

We need help in so many ways. We suffer on the education front. We suffer on the medical front. We suffer on the spiritual front. Many of us feel that we have been ignored by the world that seems to care more about not hurting the feelings of the speakers with an autism diagnosis than helping us. We have voices now too…and to see us represented at this conference is beyond words wonderful.

The time has come to make changes to the established paradigm. We are not cognitively impaired. We are not socially impaired. We have bodies that have minds of their own. We can do so much with the right supports. And we are fed up with the way things are.

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9/23/2025 1 Comment

An Update: 9/23/25

Today, an update: I am taking the same medicine that Alex is on, and for the first time, I can tell it’s working. The OCD is still raging, but the anger is slowly improving. Unfortunately, because of these liver tests, which have been elevated, I can’t go up faster. But even so, I can tell that I am getting less and less angry.

The relief is profound. The scariest thing on earth is to know that at any moment you might snap and hurt someone. It’s really terrifying. And like I’ve said before, the guilt is overwhelming.

I am so grateful that my Mom listened to me. She took me to the best psychiatrist and got me help. I am getting better and Alex is better, and that means that soon we can move into our bro house. It will be party central.