Communication is everything

Wes and I have three beautiful children. Reese and Stella are twin girls, and their brother Drake came along a short 18 months later. Stella regressed into the world of autism at 18 months. The pain of having a child that can’t communicate their most basic desires is a burden like no other. Is she hungry? Does her stomach hurt? What would she like for her birthday?

For thirteen years, Stella struggled on a daily basis. There were tantrums, self-injurious behaviors and many sleepless nights. We tried every therapy under the sun with the hope of giving her the best life possible. Not much progress was made during those years. We worried about the future. How would she be cared for after we were gone? Imagine the financial burden of full-time care for the rest of her life. And the toll it would take on her siblings to assume care of her once we were gone. You know the saying you’re only as happy as your least happy child? By year 13, I was hanging on by a thread. Yes, I had a loving husband who worked from home and helped with all the daily tasks of providing care for Stella. And we had a nanny that loved Stella so much and allowed me to take breaks and practice some self-care. But my happiness was directly tied to how Stella was doing. And there were some very dark days.

Our lives changed when I watched the movie Spellers, free to watch on YouTube. It documents several autistic children and their journey using S2C, Spelling To Communicate. I had a flicker of hope. What if Stella could learn to do this? Could she learn to type on a letterboard? Learn to tell us what she likes and dislikes? We had already spent tens of thousands of dollars on therapy and medical interventions. Could I handle the emotional fall-out of trying another therapy only to have it fail? I’m forever grateful I took a chance on S2C. I paid for Stella’s long time nanny to take the certification course and our journey began.