Daniel's Voice

The documentary 'A Mother's Courage' changed the way I understand education and communication in non-verbal children. The DVD introduced me to the Rapid Prompting Method of teaching developed by Soma Mukhodhyay. RPM presumes competence and comprehension and works from there. Cornell University published a positive study done on RPM a few years ago.

I studied the RPM textbooks and watched videos to understand the process and began trying it with Daniel in 2010. He cannot communicate in typical ways because of his neurological issues. Recently I bought a large letter board, and after years of working on phonics and spelling at home, we started using RPM to identify letters and begin independent spelling. I'm more excited about this than any other method we've tried over the years.

This spring we plan to travel to Austin, Texas to be trained by Soma, the founder of the Rapid Prompting Method. I've heard wonderful things about her ability to help non-verbal people use RPM to learn and communicate.It is reasonably priced, but with travel and hotel costs, it's going to be difficult since insurance does not cover RPM. Regardless, I will do whatever I can to raise the funds and make sure he is given the chance to use his voice.