MOUTH TO HAND LEARNING CENTER

DYSPRAXIA STINKS

BY JASON LEVINE

My name is Jason Levine, and the thing is, I want the world to meet the real me. Before I could spell, no one that worked with me could see my potential. Having dyspraxia stinks…but at least it stinks a little less now. Greatness is being beyond the loss of ability, and finding the ability to have success. Being dyspraxic means loss of motor control, not cognitive control.

Love has given me a voice. Getting a voice has given me the ability to make real thoughts known.

10/8/2024 1 Comment

October 8, 2024

Having been laughing my ass off sitting here staring at Judy in her birthday decor, I am once again struck by the fact that giving is more fun than receiving. Her face, when Rocco threw open the door just now to give her a present, made me laugh out loud. Definitely hilarious.

Can I say that love is my favorite emotion to feel. Basically, that is happiness, joy, gentle laughter, fun, good thoughts, loyalty, trust, caring all rolled into one. Hard to top that! I can really kind of feel it as soon as I walk into M2H, and the epicenter is Judy. It makes me so beyond happy to make her feel special today. I know that I am not alone until I get here each week because even up in Connecticut I feel it.

For people to really understand what I am talking about, you really must meet Judy. Being nonspeaking sucks, but she makes it suck less. I want to give her her totally insanely high due: Happy Birthday to my favorite person.

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10/1/2024 0 Comments

Friendship

Maybe this post will make little sense to you who speak with your mouths. It will totally make sense to the nonspeakers out there though. All my life, before spelling, there was a pain in my heart that had nothing to do with my inability to speak. Can you imagine your life without friends? I personally am as intensely grateful for my friends as I am for my ability to speak. I was beyond lonely before we came to M2H. I only get to come here and to see them once a week, but knowing I have friends and am loved by them has utterly changed my life.

Appearances can be deceiving, and I know that on the outside, we look autistic. But on the inside, we are intensely social people. Having friends gives me the love and fun I so desperately missed.

I am kind of teary inside writing this. Having lived in a friendless world, I remember only too well how it felt. The never-ending heartache was agonizing. Being that way for so long was horrible. Now I wake up each day in happiness. Getting sentimental for a moment, people really, it so seems, need other people.

Hastening to finish this, let me say that love is the most important thing on earth. My knowing that there are people who love and value me has made wishes come true.

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9/24/2024 0 Comments

No Control

Having dyspraxia means we can’t think and do at the same time. If I think about hopping up and down, I can’t hop and down. Imagine yourself sitting and waiting to ask someone privately about where the bathroom is. He steps into the room, but you cannot move or speak. No matter how hard you try, and no matter how badly you need to pee, you sit there helplessly. It’s an awful feeling.

Consider my life, prior to spelling: I’d sit in classrooms, particularly bored, feeling utterly helpless. No matter what I did, all the time, I had no way of telling anyone that I was not cognitively disabled. I tried over and over, but the thoughts in my head never translate into muscle movements. There are no words to describe how frustrating that is.

Having been a speller for years now, I can definitely say that my stress and frustration levels are way down. All I really mainly want, besides a cure in the near future, is at M2H in the almost perfect way (the only imperfection being no cure). Here at least I am seen and known for who I really am. And here I am happy.