I am shattered with exhaustion but drowning in satisfaction. Our first attempt at an Angelman literacy camp was proof of concept: we can pack 16 families into a large cabin with terrible cold rainy weather and we can learn to understand more of what our sons and daughters are communicating, more of what we can do to support their communication, and more of how we can invite them into autonomous literate citizenship in the world. We carefully recruited 16 families with 17 sons and daughters who, between them, represent all the challenges and gifts and barriers our kids face. These families dropped everything on only 2 weeks notice to travel to Ontario and be our guinea pigs. We recruited world-class speech therapists and literacy experts with Caroline Ramsey Musselwhite, Gretchen Hanser, and Jennifer Marden. We received funding support from the cutting-edge Foundation for Angelman Therapeutics, from a special fund dedicated to exploring how technology can improve our kids lives and opportunities. We received donations in kind of educational and technological materials from the Don Johnston Corporation, Assistiveware, Attainment, AbleNet, GripCase, and Big Grips. We put out a call for help and we were enthusiastically joined by Alison Rumball, Cassidy Harm, Leah Dolmage, Steve Speicher, Carly Smalbill, Laura Hardwick, and two remarkable videographers. We descended on the Great Moose Adventures camp, where the teachers who staff it were creative and flexible and so very supportive of our great Angelman invasion. And then we started reading, writing, commenting, pranking, questioning, problem-solving, experimenting, modeling, eating, and getting thoroughly rained out. Now, we recover. :) Then, we begin to analyze and assess and prepare to share what we learned with the larger Angelman community. FAST Gala Educational Summit 2014: here we come!
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 19:01:33 +0000
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