Advocacy is our middle name. We say this because it is true in several ways – advocacy is the “A” in our name, but it is also at the forefront of everything we do. We advocate for our clients and their families’ rights in the education system, law, and therapeutic process. By many measures, our most successful outcome is a child who gains the ability to self-advocate as a result of receiving CHAT services.
Enter Izzy.
Izzy is an Autistic middle school student who has been in speech therapy since kindergarten. She was in general education classrooms until the second grade when she moved to a therapeutic school. CHAT SLPs worked with Izzy on social communication, figurative language, self-advocacy, and confidence prior to her transition back to general education.
It is rare for a child to make the jump from general education to a therapeutic school, and then back to general education. It is even rarer for a child in that position to be able to address a room full of adults deciding their future. But, because of Izzy’s work in speech therapy, she was able to clearly communicate her wants and needs for her classes and accommodations in her annual IEP meeting while discussing her transition back to general education school.
We are so proud of Izzy for demonstrating the kind of fierce self-advocacy that we hope to instill in all our clients so that they can bring their therapy tools out into the world!