By Kerry Magro, Self-Advocate, National Speaker, and Author

Dear Speech Language Pathologist: I don’t know how you got your start. What your role was in helping those with special needs. Some of you have helped pave the way to diagnose while others who are reading this may have assessed and helped those with a wide range of speech and language related challenges. You may work in a school, business, rehabilitation center, hospital, private clinic – you name it. You often spend countless hours of your time both giving all you can to see your students and patients succeed, and for that I wanted to say thank you.

Each day I see you help students swallow, pronounce different words, use text to speech software and speak without stuttering. You are also there with encouragement when you see them reach a new goal in their development. You provide encouragement to them when they are struggling which is just as important. And you do that because you care. You care because you have a passion for our loved ones. It’s a passion I’ve seen firsthand as someone who was diagnosed with autism at an early age.

My speech therapists often didn’t know what my future was going to look like being completely nonverbal till I was 2 ½ years old. It was because of your efforts that helped me reach milestones in my communication such as saying my first words when I was three, and speaking in complete sentences at five. I still contribute my development thanks to my village that was comprised of those amazing therapists like you out there in our community.

It can be scary at times living in a world where you don’t know how to connect with those around you. I know my emotional challenges because of my limited communication abilities often made learning difficult. But no matter the obstacle you were there.

Today, because of people like you I’ve been able to overcome being nonverbal to being a professional certified public speaker sharing my story around the world. Often in those talks I bring up your names as the ones who are paving the way for our loved ones. I now work with people such as yourself to share my obstacles and successes to help the future generations of Kerry Magro’s you work with.

It’s truly special to see what you do. Never underestimate your impact. You are part of our community and doing things that will make a difference.

Never forget that.

Your friend,
A Former Special Education Student