Nuanced Conversations Podcast
Welcome to Nuanced Conversations Podcast, where we dive deep into the complex and often overlooked aspects of today's most pressing topics. Each week, we bring you thought-provoking discussions with experts, innovators, and everyday people who offer unique perspectives and insights. Whether we're exploring the intricacies of social issues, science, culture, or personal development, our goal is to move beyond the surface and engage in meaningful dialogue that challenges assumptions and expands understanding. Join us as we navigate the gray areas and uncover the richness that lies in nuanced conversations.
Nuanced Conversations Podcast
Transforming Lives: Early Interventions and Autism Services with Dr. Ashley Wiley Johnson
Dr. Ashley Wiley Johnson, Vice President of the Los Angeles Speech and Language Therapy Center, joins us to unpack the extraordinary legacy her mother began 45 years ago. Promising to enlighten you with tales of transformation, Dr. Johnson shares how their therapeutic preschool has been a "hidden gem," seamlessly transitioning children into top-tier Los Angeles schools for nearly three decades. You’ll gain insights into their impactful work with organizations like Crystal Stairs and Pathways Los Angeles, offering essential support to foster children and single parents, while empowering families through initiatives like the Parent Professional Partnership program.
In the heart of South LA's vibrant educational landscape, we explore pressing issues like racial and financial disparities. Dr. Johnson's personal journey, influenced by her mother’s educational work and her own passion for theater, sheds light on how advocacy can empower future generations. We tackle the complexities of autism, emphasizing the vital role of early assessment and intervention, and engage in a nuanced discussion surrounding recent controversies, all while advocating for the power of parental intuition.
Journey with us as we navigate the expansive world of speech therapy, delving into how innovative approaches like therapeutic preschools are revolutionizing support for individuals with autism. Dr. Johnson articulates her aspirations to reshape global perceptions of autism, while providing lifelong support through dedicated centers. As we wrap up, anticipate a future filled with hope—thanks to new projects, inspiring connections, and an upcoming gala that promises to continue the Center's mission to make a meaningful impact in the community.
Greetings everyone. Thank you for tuning in to Nuance Conversation Podcast. My name is George Hurd, I am the creator and curator of this space, and we have a special, special guest in studio today. Once again, we're going to learn a lot about her or a little depends on how much she's willing to share but most importantly, about the work that she does and her mom does and so many things that affect me personally and also our community as a whole. We sort of people in at the beginning because these are nuanced conversations. We operate in the gray, not the black and white, even though this conversation is a safe place in general. But so we just swear and swear to be nuanced today.
Speaker 2:Yes, ok good, yeah, nobody knows what to do here.
Speaker 1:Yes, we get all our make account. Now tell us about, uh, what you do, where people can find you, where people can support what you got coming up your social media handle. We usually wait to end, but I want to do that off the bat because you're so well-rounded and so important to our community. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.
Speaker 2:So my name is Dr Ashley Wiley Johnson and I am the vice president at the Los Angeles Speech and Language Therapy Center. It was founded by my mom 45 years ago and we have locations. We pretty much serve people across the lifespan, from 18 months all the way up through adulthood, and we do pretty much anything to work on developing language, whether that's a typical child in our typical preschool or it's a child with autism or a person who might just have a speech impediment, or an older person with a stroke. Any time that language is impacted we have one-to-one therapy, we have preschool programs, we have center-based programs, we have employment readiness programs anything you can think of to help serve someone across the lifespan. So our locations are all over, from Lawndale to our main location is in the heart of Culver City. We have our typical preschool in View Park, ladera Heights area. We have another center-based program in the city of Linwood and we have speech therapy in Sherman Oaks.
Speaker 1:Wow. What's the website? How would people connect? What's the telephone number?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's wwwspeaklacom, and then our phone number is 310-649-6199. And that will connect you to any of our five locations and we can help to figure out how to best serve individuals in need.
Speaker 1:The preschool is a more fresh development, if I understand right. Tell us about that and what the transition to that was. What motivated that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's actually not too fresh in comparison because it's 28 years old now. So 28 years ago my mother started. She started 45 years ago working with individuals, just specifically with special needs, and it was really began as early intervention younger children. But then from there she decided that she wanted a space for her employees and also a good, solid education for young children in the heart of Ladera Heights View Park and Windsor Hills and so she began our typical preschool 28 years ago and it's in this little property. It's a big property but it's really hidden because there's a big gate right as you go up Slauson and between La Brea and Overhill and there's an amazing mural and says hidden gem, hidden gem in the hills.
Speaker 2:And that's literally what it is, and I mean it's been amazing to see like the first graduate of the school now has completed her doctoral degree from Howard University and coming back to be a speech pathologist always because she said she enjoyed the start, that she got with us and and so it's.
Speaker 2:It's been there and now we're at this point now where we're re-enrolling children for the fall. We've got two classrooms and we serve kids from two years of age all the way through kindergarten and I think what I like the most about the preschool is the fact that we really help get our children and our community into transitioning to some of the top schools in Los Angeles, you know, because it's not hard it's not easy to be able to get into these different schools or figure out how to connect, or if I'm going to a charter school, how do I make it for the lottery. We really focus on helping the family figure out what's next for their child and being a support, and it's really cool to see that even some of the kids who have graduated from there will come back and get community service hours, because we also work with individuals with special needs.
Speaker 1:What about, like parents, foster children, single parents? Is there anything that you all do specifically directed towards that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. We partner with Crystal Stairs also with Pathways Los Angeles, which are two subsidized early education programs where they provide funding for any family. Oftentimes it might be a foster child, might be a single mother or someone that's in need. So we partner with them so that the school is actually paid for. If you go through Crystal Stairs and through Pathways LA, the majority of the tuition, which is great.
Speaker 2:So, we want everybody to be able to access the service. And then we're also really parent-centered, so we really thrive on parents coming back volunteering, being a part of the class. But we also have a training called Parent Professional Partnership, which is eight weeks. That really helps because, you know, the hardest thing is the kids will have just. You know, you have your children. I know I have a three-year-old and a six-year-old. We're right in the middle of the trenches of it and then how can I stop to make sure I'm doing everything I can do, but even taking a moment to care for myself? And so our parent professional partnership is an eight week long program and we cover different topics every week, from self-care of the parent to understanding development, you know, because we are speech pathologists even for a typical child, making sure that you know what are the milestones that they should hit so that if anything goes wrong, you know to go and get help.
Speaker 2:We bring the professionals in and really support them that way.
Speaker 1:We get a little bit into you, about learning a little bit more about you. Can you talk about just the difference between public school, charter school, private school? Then maybe for parents that are watching, what are pros and cons in the LA region specifically, but generally as a whole in those three areas, or if I'm missing something as well, yeah, absolutely yeah, it's, you know it's.
Speaker 2:So you have all those options. You are not missing anything. You've got that just right. But you have all of those different options.
Speaker 2:Of course you know a public school is access to everybody.
Speaker 2:It is free and it's appropriate public education, which means that anywhere within the radius of your home you should be able to access a school.
Speaker 2:Walk in, say, your child needs class or is enrolled in a program or needs some sort of assessment, and they can offer that within the guidelines of the school district. They follow the curriculum that's set by the district, which oftentimes is set by the state and even federal public education. Then come along because of many families feeling that, wanting to be more specific about what their child is learning in the classroom, whether it's a certain subject area, like a very STEM-based or an arts program, you'll find charter schools will often have like a specialization. They will specialize in a certain piece and so for them to be able to get into a charter school it's ran by lottery. So sometimes that lottery, dependent upon what school district you're going to, the lottery might be in October, it could be in January, and everybody has a shot to be able to get into that school and you'll see differences in the type of education there. Also smaller ratios in comparison.
Speaker 2:One of the things that's going on right now. With public school, you might see 25 to 35 children in a classroom and one teacher. That teacher may not even be consistent throughout the course of the whole school year. But in a charter school we're seeing lower ratios. Sometimes it might be 20, 25. I've even seen some charters that have 10 or 11 kids in the classroom. But the great thing is is that you get to have a little bit more freedom with what the curriculum looks like. The charter school is not beholden to following the guidelines of the Department of Education. And then there's also well, there was one thing we did miss, but I'll go into it it's parochial schools.
Speaker 2:That's going to be, anything like your St James, St Jerome's, all of that that's connected to some sort of greater parish or church. Okay, and you know, traditionally they've always been known for very direct teaching, Like you think about, like the nun hitting the little table with her ruler all of that swatting children.
Speaker 2:I'll know about that, but I do know that they are a little bit more traditional and rigid. But there's great education that goes on there. I would say from there, depend upon where it is. You might need to be connected with the church, like if you go to a Catholic school, or you may not necessarily even need to be connected with the congregation but be supportive of the mission of the churches or the congregation that you're working with. So you'll see different schools like that and their entrance usually is a little bit more similar to a private school. They have like a deadline for when to apply, they may have an interview process and you'll also see ratios which are somewhere between a charter school and a private school or maybe even closer to a private, where you'll usually see smaller class sizes, a little bit more support and those traditionally most times you have to pay, Sometimes they're subsidized experiences you know, based on what the family's income is, but usually every single person pays at least something for the school.
Speaker 2:And then the last would be independent schools.
Speaker 1:Independent private schools, that's the private schools.
Speaker 2:And you know in LA we've got so many that have great reputations. You'll see a lot smaller class size. You'll see instruction that's not connected exactly to the Department of Education, so you might see that like a well-rounded, they're teaching you about everything. Every different school, every school, will have a different pedagogy how they actually teach, the way that they decide to teach. So some of them you might see be a little bit more liberal and play-based, or you might see some that's a little bit more child led, Like they want to figure out what the children are interested in.
Speaker 2:You see some schools that have like a strong heavy academic focus that science, technology, engineering, math private schools that focus on that language, all those things.
Speaker 2:So you'll see, usually all the bells and whistles in a private school because there is a cost associated with it, their funding process will match a little bit closer to college where you can put in your application to be able to receive some funding. There's some great programs like the Alliance out here in Los Angeles that helps families regardless of need to be able to bring students of color into these private schools Because, you know, years ago it was like one of two, maybe one of one or one of none in terms of black and Hispanic children that you'll see in these classes, because the costs associated and, just, I think, maybe our access to it.
Speaker 1:Access and probably you know, connections to who's on the board and awareness and filling up the space, because there's limited space. I think most of them have wait lists and things of that nature that comes to it.
Speaker 2:Right. So, just like a college, it's like you either get in, you might get wait listed, or you don't get in, and that's usually what you'll see with those.
Speaker 1:Well, let's critique those just a little bit more. So when we talk about public schools, even from locally to the federal level, and we talk about curriculum and we know from the inner city some of the stereotypic flaws In your mind, what are some, especially as it relates to the African-American community? If I have my child in a public school, what is the things that needs to be done to maximize that experience? Let's say, inferior public school, what can you do to be done to maximize that?
Speaker 2:experience, let's say inferior public school. What can you do to be able to make it?
Speaker 1:maximize that experience and get the best out of that you know what I would say.
Speaker 2:involvement Number one being able to be there. If you're able to be involved at the school so that you can see what's happening with your child or see what's not happening with your child, I always recommend like volunteering, if you're able to volunteer, you know I also say that like being involved in extracurricular activities, because there's some great programs, especially a lot of nonprofits, that are focused on doing things in the parks and doing things in terms of, like you know, the beehive, for example. Like stimulating STEM in the middle of South LA, making sure that the kids have an experience.
Speaker 1:Explain beehive.
Speaker 2:So the beehive is a place, it's South Sola Beehive, and I don't, you know, I don't go in lanes.
Speaker 1:That I don't know. No, no.
Speaker 2:It's a STEM location. I mean they've got. I went there with my kids and it was just amazing. They've got all sorts of coding programming you can learn, you know, you can create video games and just like a space, a safe space, and it's literally right in the middle of South LA, like behind a huge gated iron fence. You open it up and it's this beautiful campus. And you know, I feel like our contemporaries are just kind of tired of well. There's no resources, so we're building whatever we can build.
Speaker 2:And so little gems like that, and having your child involved will help to transition. You know, anything that's not happening in the class, which we know unfortunately occurs often- Our temporary is many black people. Yeah, right, I got you yeah.
Speaker 1:And then now we talk about charter schools. I know there's a lot of controversy connected to that. Well, how do you feel about that process?
Speaker 2:You know, I've seen great charter schools and I've seen charter schools that was like why are you a school Right? I've literally seen both. I think they need to. Maybe the the whole process is going to continue to get better with time. I'm just glad now that people who have not had a choice, maybe traditionally, are only able to go to a public school or only aware of a public school. I think charter schools have come in and created access and I think the great charter schools are going to continue to rise and do great things. There'll be more charter schools that are going to come up and my hope was also the charter schools that are not there for the right reasons will ultimately trickle away.
Speaker 1:Who's in charge of making sure they're there for the right reasons?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, there's different charter associations. So, some of them are managing, and I'm not sure exactly what their names are. It escapes me, but there's several organizations that are in charge of it?
Speaker 1:Are they federal? Excuse me, are they governmental agencies? No, no, that's the thing about charter. It's unbridled by that, like it is not connected to the Department of Education.
Speaker 2:They have certain things that they have to. You know, register as a charter school, all that stuff. But the curriculum, the criteria, all of those things are usually unique to the school.
Speaker 2:They're autonomous with that, like some organizations like a KIPP or a Green Dot, that's like it's an agency that has charter schools all over the country. So they kind of manage it. So it depends on you know. And then there's just groups, also like the charter school. I think it's a charter school association that comes together and they, they are a collective of charter schools and so then they try to bring in other charter schools that would fall within their same criteria and everybody you know to create some autonomy.
Speaker 1:A think a little bit. But is it fair to say that the racial gap in education is connected to access to charter schools and public schools proposed to private schools? Would you trace it to that?
Speaker 2:Access is huge and disparity is huge. Yeah, the disparity we know is big. I mean reasons for disparity. It depends Some frameworks we'll talk about. Okay, it's, you know, financial means. It's access. So, for example, the type of job that you have, maybe it requires for you to be working all day. There's no way that you can go and see what's happening in your child's school, or there's maybe no time for you to be able to do homework. All that stuff adds to what might be more of a deficit. You know these challenges that kids might face. Financial means, access to knowledge.
Speaker 2:So just knowing that like oh, by the way, down the street is the beehive and I can go there and take my child there because I want them to learn how to use the computer. But if you don't know about it, you're not going to be able to get to it. And then it's also self-efficacy, like do you have the time to advocate for your child, to try to figure out what is available? And so between access to services, knowledge, self-efficacy and then financial components, that's what makes up a whole disparity. And so any of those things where you may experience deficit will just add to what makes it harder for your child to do as best as they possibly can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a fair point. Talk to us about your journey into this process. I know, growing up with your mom already connected and involved in the field, was it something that you always knew hey, this I want to do, just what my mom is doing. Or were you like I'm be independent and be a solo artist? I'm not joining the group, I'm not joining the Temptationsations, I'm dropping my solo album no, that's funny.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I like I tell people all the time. You know, if there was a study on child labor, maybe my face would pop up. Wow, because my mom was a single mom and so for years, you know, if she was going to work, she wanted us to be there with her. She also believed, even though she was busy running this empire creating it at that time.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:She wanted to make sure that we were there, so I was at work with her all the time. You know summertime would occur and I'm in the classrooms with the children in our early intervention program. You know I was working in there, but then at the same time I also was really into theater and I'm still into theater and so. I would just you know.
Speaker 1:Acting, singing, Acting acting.
Speaker 2:At that time I was like, okay, acting is all I really wanted to do, and so I went off to school. I went to North Carolina for college, got my UNC, Chapel Hill Shout out to all the Tar Heels.
Speaker 1:You know we're University of National Champions over here. That's right, michael Jordan, yeah, back in the days, way back in the days.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, still, yeah, yeah yeah, wow, the shame, the shame.
Speaker 1:We reminisce over you, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I'm coming to bad territory.
Speaker 1:No, it's all good. They did beat Michigan 5-5. They did. They did Infamous timeout situation. We're making it work.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know we're still University of Blue, but not that blue down there Not the blue devil.
Speaker 1:But we have that Carolina blue that calming, so anyways.
Speaker 2:So yes, I got my you started theater there.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dramatic art and theater Okay. And was just gun ho, I was going to go.
Speaker 1:To New York. From there, move to New York. Okay.
Speaker 2:And then around junior years when my mom was like, okay, well, if you move to New York, that's fine, but you're like this is it. You won't have any help. So you're going to have to figure out what you're going to do and what are you going to work and how's this going to go. And so I said I would just take one speech class just to see I was filling up time and I still just. My plan was to go to New York and I took the first communicative disorders disorders class with a woman named Brenda Mitchell. She's like this awesome, awesome woman, and she just reminded me of myself, my mom, my aunts, you know, I saw her in me when I walked into that class.
Speaker 1:Professor of the class.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was the first, most easy A that I had just gotten at the university. I was like oh this was so easy and I realized that I knew it was your passion, it was your purpose in my blood.
Speaker 2:And so then from there, I was OK, I'll take another class, I'll take another class, and then it's time for graduation, almost. And I was like let me just apply to graduate school. And I thought either I'm going to apply. At that time I was like I'm just going to apply, do this for two years and then I'm going to move to new york and that's just so I have this.
Speaker 2:This was still in north carolina so then I ended up getting into san jose state university, where I got a full scholarship to learn how to work with hispanic children with special needs, and so I was like, okay, this is this, this will work. So I moved over there and the rest was history. You know, you start getting into a professional field and you get deeper and deeper.
Speaker 1:And theater aligns with speech, because theater you have to. There's a lot about pronunciation and verbalization and all that more than is anything else right.
Speaker 2:The public speaking part.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I've heard that. So that connection kind of was smooth. How was it in San Jose? How was those couple years there?
Speaker 2:It was good. Oh, I love the Bay, it was good to come yeah.
Speaker 1:This is pre-San Jose boom, though it's not.
Speaker 2:Oh, so interesting. Okay, it was right in the middle of that.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's in the middle of the boom, so the first year.
Speaker 2:I remember distinctly finding my apartment right in the middle of downtown, distinctly finding my apartment right in the middle of downtown. Downtown was not as booming.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And I paid $1,100 for this amazing apartment right, it was like huge. I was like, wow, I'm so glad I got this. In comparison to LA and by the time that I finished, which it was just a two and a half year program, they wanted to renew my lease and it was $3,400.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Just like that.
Speaker 1:Think of you would have bought when you went there, right?
Speaker 2:I really should have. I know because some of those houses were wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, San Jose is probably more expensive than San Francisco. Now, right, I would think so.
Speaker 2:I would think so, because you still actually get space, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I enjoyed it. I really liked San Jose State. I liked being in the Bay. I loved driving down the 5 and being in LA when I needed to. So it was perfect, because North Carolina was just a little bit too far where I still just California was calling me.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're back in the state. What's happening in this master's program? What's like? Are you getting? You're moving less and less away from the passion of a theater, more and more. You mentioned that, but how does that happen? What is it that's ebbing up inside of?
Speaker 2:you so you know. So. So with theater, you still use that as a therapist.
Speaker 2:You know I think I use my dramatic measures all the time to get a client to talk, to get a child to understand I'm saying no, or get them to understand I'm saying yes. But what I was also, what I also did, was I realized when I was working with children specifically who had autism, when I would try to assume role-playing with them, they had an amazing talent to like memorize a line, they liked role-playing, they wanted to act. And so then now, 19 years ago, I started the first drama class in our summer speech camp.
Speaker 2:It was called Drama Kings and Queens. It's now still. It's 19 years old, almost turning 20. And so every year in my year I turn off my traditional speech therapist hat and add to it putting on a huge musical. And so the kids just even. This year, now, 19 years later, it started off as just an elective in the speech camp and it's turned into a whole program.
Speaker 1:Oh wow.
Speaker 2:So drama Kings and Queens is, uh, during the year social skills program and then during the summer it's a theater camp for people with autism. And um, they just finished their big show. Actually, on the 20th they performed in Santa Monica. We had almost about 400 people come out and just see the kids. They performed this amazing musical that was written by them and another amazing producer who's my friend from Carolina. He's an Emmy Award winning talk show producer. And he's written the kids plays since I was in college.
Speaker 2:And so this one play Grown Up was talking about independence as a neurodiverse person. What does that look like when you're about to graduate and there's these four characters that are figuring out their career and their college and they're living alone. And so it turns out that two years ago one of my students said you know, I really wish I could help you rewrite this to just talk a little bit more about what I feel as a person with autism. And I was like, ok, that's great. And he edited the show. He's now off to Cal State, la this year. He's the first, one of the first graduates of the drama program that's gone off to a four year college.
Speaker 2:He's just doing phenomenal things. And so the kids performed Grown Up two weeks ago and it was just amazing to see how well they did. Actually, not two weeks, it was last Saturday.
Speaker 1:What is autism?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. I feel like we're all asking what is autism?
Speaker 2:Still it's a neurodevelopmental disorder. It impacts Two areas that you have to be able to qualify and to receive some services or a diagnosis of autism. You have to have a social impairment and also presentation of restrictive and repetitive behaviors. Of restrictive and repetitive behaviors, you may or may not have communication deficits too. So those up to three things will come up to show you what a child with autism is like. And restrictive and repetitive behaviors can be anything from. You know, instead of playing with a toy, you line it up in a line or you just go back and forth, you know, looking at it through the side of your eye, or also like maybe you just don't like to walk on the rest of the sidewalk, you only like to walk on the line, or you touch grass and you totally freak out. Sensory differences, behavioral differences, and then you'll also see social impairments. So challenges from like the baby learning to smile. When you smile, you know mommy smiles at the baby. Usually they smile, they laugh but a child with autism.
Speaker 2:You may not see that withdrawal or attachment, attachment challenges not wanting to give hugs, not wanting to give eye contact all the way up through adulthood. That might look like your inability to work in a corporate setting because you only like to wear one type of t-shirt and you only wear this one t-shirt every single day and you're having a hard time at work because your coworkers don't understand that. It's really a sensory challenge as to why you're not able to change or may not be as fresh as you need to be, like those things we really work on with adults with autism. And then in the middle of that, you might see teenagers. You know some of my kids are learning like is this a friend, is this a crush, is this a boyfriend or girlfriend? If I want this person to be a boyfriend or girlfriend, what do I do? We do therapy to help them learn all those steps oh wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:You do amazing stuff, thank you. I don't know if you saw the interview of amanda seals saying that she was diagnosed. What did you think about that? Tell us what happened then. What do you think about it?
Speaker 2:okay, so all right. I only saw a snippet of it, but essentially she told the person that was interviewing her, shannon.
Speaker 1:Sharp yes.
Speaker 2:Shannon Sharp that she thought she had autism or that she had that's the problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she has it.
Speaker 2:That was the problem. Okay, she said I have it, but she doesn't have a diagnosis. And that's what happened.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So first everybody's like, oh okay, Wow, Amanda has autism. But then of course you know, with the internet it just goes wild. So it blew up and they're like, well, do you really have autism, Right? And then she came up and said, well, I don't really have a diagnosis. And then she disappointed everybody.
Speaker 1:Right you know.
Speaker 2:I think it's like because people, because it's an invisible disability a child with autism, an adult with autism, they don't have a certain look like some of the other disabilities that you might see, for example, down syndrome. You're always going to know a child that might have some sort of disorder like a Down syndrome, because there'll be some facial differences. Their eyes might be closer together, you might see like a larger tongue. You know certain things that will say, oh, this person has some facial differences, their eyes might be closer together, you might see like a larger tongue. You know certain things that will say, oh, this person has some special needs. You don't see that with autism. So it's easier for someone to be like, oh, I've got this too.
Speaker 2:To see themselves and some of those characteristics and then just label themselves. I was very disappointed that she did that and, you know, as a young black woman I was like, hey, why did she have to do that? Right Because it just put some, you know, bad press for her, but also I know parents that were just like why would she do that? Why would she say that, like I'm living with this child who has this diagnosis, and she's over here saying that she has it, but not respecting the fact that this is a real disorder?
Speaker 1:And it really does take professionals to diagnose that. Well, how would you to a child, to adulthood, how would a person diagnosed go about that? Identifying? Because diagnosis, I'm sure, is going to the professionals, but how about identifying that there's a need to even do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I always say. You know our gut feeling, our intuition, that guide, whatever that looks like. However, you've been brought to this feeling that your child's not performing the way that you would expect them to perform. Just right there I say go to a doctor, because from there you can unpack what could possibly be going on, whereas you know, I think the gut feeling is number one, I think, knowing that there's these difficulties with social skills. So, if you notice that your child is not playing appropriately with toys, you notice that your child is not communicating, because even though communication is not, it does not have to be an area to be able to diagnose. It usually is something that co-occurs with social skills deficits and repetitive and restrictive behaviors. So, if your child's not talking, go to the doctor. If you're hearing sounds that don't sound like he's going ba-ba-ba-ba, instead it's just like, ah, you know, high-pitched sound.
Speaker 1:So it's correlation but not causation all the time, right, right.
Speaker 2:So right. So communication is a correlation. Social skills and restrictive and repetitive behaviors is in fact a part of the diagnosis.
Speaker 2:So once you go to the doctor, then there's the DSM-5, which is the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, and it has all the disorders that you can be able to qualify a person under disorders that you can be able to qualify a person under and so they'll give you a series of tests. Some of them might be direct with your child, some of them might be like a questionnaire, where they're asking you questions, and then there'll be some direct observation, and so that person usually is a psychiatrist, psychologist or developmental pediatrician and a speech pathologist, while we traditionally don't diagnose we can often be on the teams of people that do diagnose.
Speaker 2:So they give a diagnosis, they look and see. Like I said, if you have, you have to qualify in two criteria social skills deficits and restrictive and repetitive behaviors. And then the third qualification area is communication. And so if you meet that criteria then they say it's autism.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. What is some of the known or need-to-be-known programs that's out there for people or governmental benefits or anything for people or governmental benefits or anything is is how is? What are they in?
Speaker 2:How does?
Speaker 1:it needs to be reshaped and restructured, possibly so Cause you know people. I got my food styles, I get my, I get my my SSI, this check, that check and stuff like that, and and what, what is being kind of shaped, cause those are the type of things you don't hear on like political scenes, yeah.
Speaker 2:The regional. So if you're in California, it's the regional center, you know. The unfortunate thing is that because the disparity, like we talked about earlier, that disparity exists also with autism diagnosis.
Speaker 2:You know, black and Hispanic children are up to three times more likely to receive a diagnosis later or not at all. So while white counterparts, white children, will receive a diagnosis as early as up to 18 months of age as early as up to 18 months of age, traditionally children, black children, I believe it's age eight was the average on when they receive a diagnosis. So if you imagine, there's five whole years there where, if you were to have received a diagnosis early, you could be working with your child to get better and better. We are seeing later diagnosis or a misdiagnosis where they're saying like oh, you don't have autism. So there's that piece. The regional centers in California is like number one, where you're going to want to go to to make sure that you can get engaged. They'll do the evaluation. They also will stay with the child throughout their life. So once you get into the regional center and you have an autism diagnosis, you can access services. So as long as you're in the regional center, you then have like this whole thing that will open up of things that will be paid for by the regional center because you're one of their clients. So that's California.
Speaker 2:There's also in California there's a new wave called self-determination. Because of the same thing Once again. All these things are created because of disparity and wanting to make sure. Well, a disparity plays a part in why self-determination is there. And so now there's actually just a chunk of money that can be allocated to your child and you can decide what services you want to be able to use or what you don't want to be able to use.
Speaker 2:So you have that, excuse me, you have that part which is the autism or the regional center. Then, depending on where you are, it's not the same as California. You will go just to your school district or you'll try to go to, you know, your doctor and shuttle services. That way, places like Wisconsin, they've got like great resources for people with autism and just individuals with disabilities. But then there's places like North Carolina where you see that kids are not able to access services and just the ability to, even because of some stuff being so rural and out. A parent might drive two hours just to get their child speech therapy, and then how realistic is that to be able to have to drive so far? You know?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are some of the other common speech issues that come up in children and adults?
Speaker 2:I always, I always think about you. Know, besides mine, not at all. You're doing pretty good, Dr George.
Speaker 1:We can get another time, but yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2:So I always I feel like the most common you'll always hear people say oh, I had a speech teacher, I couldn't make the R sound you know, R. I say like I can't even say the R sound because as a speech pathologist, we just think about the R, so the sound a lisp. You know the tongue is coming out places.
Speaker 2:You're hearing more air like that type of feel Kids who have that, so a speech impediment, those are articulation issues. That's huge. Most children that will get speech therapy at a school. Typically many of them will have just straight articulation difficulties. But then we have other disorders, some disorders that are cognitive. Back in the day we used to use that horrible term, mental retardation.
Speaker 2:This person's retarded that's not the word that we can use anymore but people that have cognitive difficulties or intellectual disability. That's where you'll see some like brain differences and then that might result in some communication delay or disorders or maybe not even able to speak at all. Then, as you get older, then we look at more traumatic brain injury and accidents that can occur.
Speaker 2:Like. I had a client who was a truck driver and he was just very active, great truck driver across the country, beautiful family, beautiful wife, beautiful church family. He fell off the truck, hit his head, whole life changed and as a result he passed away. So the traumatic brain injury is another place where all of a sudden you can just, you know, need to have a speech therapist. That also could be a stroke. You could even see sometimes. You know other disorders like a Parkinson's, where, because you've got some sort of tremor or difficulty, even like holding your muscles, then you'll need speech therapy to learn how to compensate. So like yes, we know you can no longer do this, so now why don't you try to shorten your sentences and why don't we even? Some people might lose their speech in their entirety and need to use some augmentative device where we're teaching them how to use the computer to communicate their needs or to even change a picture to show us what you need.
Speaker 2:So speech, we can help everyone person with an accent that wants to take it away. We can do that too.
Speaker 1:What about stuttering?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:That's a huge area. Okay, and what's?
Speaker 2:connected to the cause of that. You know, they talk about demands and a lot of times a person will experience a demand whether it's wanting to say something or like an environmental demand and their speech is not up to the level of the demand that they have, and so then you experience a disturbance. So like they're trying to say something Sorry, my gum. So they're trying to say something but they're not able to say it.
Speaker 2:And then there's some sort of disturbance, which might be a block, like all of a sudden you don't hear them say something. It might be a repetition, where they're like saying things over and, over and over again, and then you might even hear a stop at all, where they just can't say it at all.
Speaker 2:So usually we'll work on what we call fluency shaping, which basically means like we want your speech to flow and that's the goal. So the therapy occurs where they're trying to give you strategies so that when you do experience this disturbance it's not a block or a stop or a repetition. You've learned something like, for example, like an easy glide, helping the person like glide into the next sound so that they can just be able to experience fluid speech. Yeah, it's really interesting stuttering and some of its psychological to just like even that anxiety piece. You know you're feeling some certain sort of way and helping the client to feel comfortable to use the strategies as opposed to experience the difficulty gender.
Speaker 1:Why is it that is more prevalent in men than women? Or is that a miss? Is that a misconception? Oh, okay, um or is that a you know what?
Speaker 2:it's a misconception it's a big piece in autism. There's way more boys that have autism than girls in in stuttering. I'm not sure about that statistic, if we see that more in general, though I've heard that connection.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think boys, of course they're like they.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because their development a lot of times is a lot later and especially speech development. We'll see boys being late, more late talkers than you see girls. They'll be chatty from the beginning.
Speaker 1:Oh, so women talk a lot. That's what you're saying.
Speaker 2:I mean.
Speaker 1:I mean, I didn't say that, ladies and gentlemen, don't at me, you did you did I'm sitting here. Actually, what about autism? What's the connection, if any, with boys and girls?
Speaker 2:Boys and girls. Yeah, boys, I think it's um three times, three times the, the prevalence for boys in comparison to female counterparts. Yeah, and, and I don't know if they know why right you know, why does a man get these challenges in comparison to a woman first?
Speaker 1:I don't know, but that is something that we see when, when, as it relates to your journey, if we go back, you finish up at San Jose. Are you all in at this point now for speech therapy? So what's the next step after that?
Speaker 2:I was all in and then I went straight from graduating to going into the schools and I worked in Paramount School District and Long Beach School District for six years.
Speaker 1:So you didn't go straight to work in your mom? Why not?
Speaker 2:She's my mom. I think I needed to have a little bit of experience. You know away like I needed to be my. Yes okay.
Speaker 2:She was really methodical about it because, she was like what she didn't feel she had was the school long school experience. Although she worked in the schools for a short time and was a consultant. She's like having that school connection is going to be really important. So she really encouraged me to go. But then probably within like a month or so, then she was kind of like well, I mean, you know, we have some clients that need to be seen in the afternoon, don't you want to just extend your day out? So then I started working in the morning in the school district.
Speaker 2:I'd work there till three and then I'd head to the clinic and I'd work there from three to six. And I did that for six years and I just kept you know because I felt like I mean when you're in the schools, especially a school that's in the middle of a really difficult area, like Paramount, for example.
Speaker 1:And Paramount is South Bay, compton Long. Beach area and what's difficult about that.
Speaker 2:So it's down Bellflower Downey Southgate going all the way down. It does neighbor Compton Parts of Paramount School District. At least like a quarter of it or so is in Compton territory and so it's just a tough area. It's an ethnic enclave so it's a very heavy Spanish speaking community. Within that community there's a lot of, you know, first generation migrant challenges, parents, difficulties, you know, with that and then, not to mention just it's a really impacted area. So there's a lot of people there. So the work you know I had most school districts you might have 40 people on your caseload and when I was at Paramount I had 82 people.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So you have a lot more kids that you have to see, and so in that job it was like every day was a new person asking for an assessment, asking for an assessment, and so I would have to just learn how to manage my time, learn how to be able to give services, but then at the same time, when I was there, I also was able to really see the difference between disparity too disparity too.
Speaker 2:Like I noticed in my school in Lakewood what services look like what, what parent involvement looked like in comparison to the school that was in the um Lake, belmont shores, that area. And so I would just see the total difference in what we could offer children, what, what, how. Parent involvement looked even just like staffing in the classroom. You know, the school that was in Belmont Shore got like special little grants and community support, and our little school in Lakewood was struggling to even just have materials. And so I was really. I was really really like inspired by figuring out like why is it like that?
Speaker 2:And so then from there, I remember going to Claremont Graduate University. I was looking for doctoral programs. There was one person in my master's program that the lady was like you don't need to be a doctor, you don't need to do that, it's not for you. And I was like, okay, that sounds good. So I'm like next year I'm about to try to go figure out how to do this, and so I was on my little search and I met Dr Carl Cohn, who's the former superintendent of Long Beach School District.
Speaker 2:He's a huge educator, just knows so much and I was in conversation with him and he just introduced me to the Urban Leadership Program and that program within Claremont Graduate School, was really just a cohort of individuals that were school leaders that wanted to figure out how we could make things better but, also wanted to understand some of the issues that were specific to LA in comparison to, you know, around the country.
Speaker 2:And so I went into that cohort and started my doctoral work and just stayed the course and was like I felt like if I was a speech therapist who just went as far as I could as a speech therapist. You know, with speech it's like you learn the structures, you learn how to do therapy and then you're on your own to perfect your craft and then you stay up with your evidence-based practice. But with education because I wasn't a teacher but I wanted to understand, like what's happening in the schools, what happens on the administrative side, and so it gave me like a whole picture. So I know how to understand the classroom stuff but also know the art of therapy, to pull a child out if needed or even go into the classrooms and be work with the teachers. So that's why I started working on my doctoral program and I was at Cal state Dominguez in the weekends for the first two years with the Claremont and then I started to go actually at Claremont to like write my dissertation and get that work done.
Speaker 1:Oh, so, while, um, you were working nine to three in the school system three to six with your mom, nine to three, mainly with mexican hispanics and the belmont shores to lakewood area, um, I'm assuming when you work with your mom it was more african american, um, and so talk to us about the transition from school system to working with your mom. She made you an offer you can't refuse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got a little. You know what it was. I realized right before I left the school district. I was like I had my own classroom as a speech pathologist.
Speaker 2:So usually you have a little office, but I had a classroom because I had created this thing called collaboration, rotation and technology and so the OT was coming in my classroom and then there was assistants and interns, speech pathologist assistants and we would see whole classrooms of children, occupational therapists, and so we were all working together and I was getting my therapy done in a really unique way, and then it hit me that, like this is not my own school, I'm in a school district and I have to follow these guidelines of the school district.
Speaker 1:And there's so much. There's so much you can do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's only so much you could do. And then I was like I felt like I had grown out of it and I needed to stay in the schools as much as I could to grab families to, you know, give them access.
Speaker 2:And then I just went off to my mom's because in private practice you're not withhold with what you're not, you know, beholden to those same standards that you're held to in the school district, and so you could do more in the school district, and so you could do more, and so that little classroom, then that model. I took that to my mom's center and created our therapeutic preschool which is a preschool for children with autism and it really was in my head, kind of birthed in the public schools.
Speaker 1:Right. What was the? What was the birthing process of that like first location and staffing and enrollment?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah yeah, it was everything from like writing the curriculum. So once I figured out, okay, it's this rotation.
Speaker 1:You had to start writing curriculum first in the schools.
Speaker 2:Okay it was just like, okay, this is speech time and we're gonna all do these different services at the same time and the kids are gonna rotate. And I learned a lot of really important things in the schools, like you know the use of icons and how it helps the children.
Speaker 2:These are icons or little things they might hold, telling them where to go and what to do, and so I learned that, then took those things to our private practice and when you want to start a preschool, you start, you make your curriculum, you start recruiting people because we're private and we started off as early intervention centers we have. That was what we were known for was the work that we did for kids from 18 months to 36 months, and right across the street, like on Slauson over there, our first center on that side was Early Intervention Center and so we already have. When families would finish at three, they'd say like well, why do?
Speaker 2:we have to leave. I haven't heard back from the school district. What do we need to do next? And so that's where we came into now basically saying, ok, we're going to create this school, wrote the curriculum. I didn't know what to do in the beginning. My mom has somebody that worked with her for 40 years of the 45 years and her name is Diane Bernstein and she still works with us and she's fabulous and all that, and so she just helped me.
Speaker 2:She was like this is what we have to do. We got to like figure out, what are they going to do? And I was like what do they do? All day I took some curriculum development classes in my doctoral degree and I used that structure and was like OK, this is how we do it and it's been successful. It's on its sixth year now and it's full before it even has any openings, which is really a blessing.
Speaker 1:Praise God. What, at what point did you start your doctorate and what was your dissertation ultimately on?
Speaker 2:did you start your doctorate and what was your dissertation ultimately on? So I went to um. I started the doctorate the second year from long beach. I started applying and then I began that next year and I finished up three you're still in the school system. At this point I was still in school, yeah, which was great because I was had space to also like get my work done. Working on a doctorate.
Speaker 1:Working nine to five, working three to six. Okay, I was working. Yeah, you need to get your discipline together. Right, I didn't have children.
Speaker 2:I didn't have a husband. I was like I'm just free, just free, just live my life and, you know, be fabulous and take my time when I could. So yeah, so I did that, and then I finished up in 2016. So I went from 2012 to 2016 on my doctorate and I was doing my dissertation.
Speaker 2:my dissertation is actually a research was on self-efficacy, so how can people advocate for themselves and take care of themselves and make decisions for their children. And also mental health factors for Hispanic mothers who have a child with autism. And so I was able to get 30 Hispanic mothers who had children with autism and 30 Hispanic mothers who had children without autism and we looked at the difference between if they were enrolled in a parent support group and if they were able to develop their self-efficacy skills along with self-efficacy, and what were their mental health factors Like?
Speaker 2:were they healthy? Were they showing things like depression, anxiety, in comparison to people that weren't in a parent support group? And so what? What came out about it was that parents who were not in a parent support group who has children with autism had stronger difficulties with mental health and poor ability to advocate for themselves or their child.
Speaker 1:Self-efficacy. What does that mean? How do you?
Speaker 2:advocate for yourself. So like how do you make sure that you get what you need? How do you make sure that your child gets what they need? And so, with that, that all connects to access to services, knowledge about what's available and your, like, general state. How do you feel about yourself? And so a parent support group is great, because anytime you could provide a parent with support and they have a community of people that are experiencing something similar then, they feel like they have space to be able to, you know, do what they need to do.
Speaker 2:So it was. It came out significant and that was my first time it really inspired me, especially with my book, to be able to think about, you know, that piece of parent support group.
Speaker 1:Talk about the book.
Speaker 2:I have a new textbook out that it actually came out in 2023. And it's called Autism Spectrum Disorders from Theory to Practice, and it's an intervention book from life across the lifespan. So, my friend, so in the midst of doing the doctoral program, you know everybody has to have a partner.
Speaker 2:You need someone that you can rely on, that you could talk to, that you could just when you don't feel like smiling at people and you just want to talk about all the challenges that was my friend, dr Belinda Doherty, and we worked together, and so we were both doing our dissertation at the same time and we'd be working out in the gym like, oh my gosh, we're almost done, we're almost done. And we started to work together and we started to do research together once we completed stuff. And then she now is a professor at Cal State, long Beach, and her and I wrote the book together.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And it's doing really well. It's internationally released through Wiley Publishing, not related to me.
Speaker 1:Okay, it is Wiley Publishing. I was about to say this me. Okay, it is wiley publishing, not circle, also a publishing company, yeah, yeah no, it's in the uk.
Speaker 2:We just found out that it's also going to be released in china. It's going to be translated into mandarin and that comes up next year, in 2025, which I didn't realize. Like the translation process to translate a textbook it takes a really long time.
Speaker 1:I imagine royalty streams of income, nothing wrong with that?
Speaker 2:Streams, streams.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's your first book, that's my first book. Yeah, are you looking to do something else?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really want to do a children's book. I'm trying to work on that. I mean, eventually I might write a little. I don't want to say self-help, but encouragement, you know, sharing a little bit more about my story to maybe encourage the next person.
Speaker 1:Got you. Yeah, I think that would be extremely helpful as it relates to all that you and your mom do. Can you talk a little bit more about the structure, so how many campuses, how many employees, what areas of work? Just kind of stress that again, I don't want people to miss that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. We do traditional speech therapy across the lifespan. That's one-to-one therapy at all of our locations. We also have social skills programs.
Speaker 1:How many locations?
Speaker 2:Five locations.
Speaker 1:So Sherman.
Speaker 2:Oaks, culver City, lawndale, linwood and South LA, and South LA is right in View Park, ladera Heights, area, gotcha, which is crazy that it's considered South LA but it technically is Technically South LA and South LA is right in View.
Speaker 1:Park, Ladera Heights area.
Speaker 2:Gotcha, which is crazy that it's considered South LA but it technically is.
Speaker 1:Technically South LA yeah.
Speaker 2:And so all five of those locations we will do speech therapy. We also have summer speech camps at our main office for people who have any sort of speech delay. It's eight weeks in the summer. We do programming in the group. We have year-round social skills at our Lawndale location, our main office in Culver City, and that's groups of individuals with autism from all the school years up through adulthood. We do employment readiness and then we have two schools, which is our therapeutic preschool for children with autism from the ages of three all the way through kindergarten, and our typical neurotypical preschool, which is a private school for children from ages two all the way through kindergarten.
Speaker 1:And that's the one on the latter. One is the one on Slauson, and where's the other school located?
Speaker 2:At our main office in Culver City, also off of Slauson and Buckingham.
Speaker 1:Okay, and what? So? There's two locations for that, and that's the one that you started.
Speaker 2:The therapeutic preschool I started about six years ago.
Speaker 1:Six years ago but my mom started our early intervention programs now 45 years ago in 1979 and you said um, you said neural neurotypical, neurotypical and that means just normal, yeah, just anyone.
Speaker 2:And even like even even a person who does have some sort of disorder or challenge, if they are not cognitively impaired, meaning like the brain is functioning the way it should be. It's a program for children, it's a preschool.
Speaker 1:How do you keep yourselves going as far as getting the word out? And, as well as I imagine you know, tuition doesn't cover all the costs. So what's what's that like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, we do things like this, you know like right now.
Speaker 1:Please come to our preschool.
Speaker 2:Please call us at speaklacom If you want to find more information about us. We'll do things like that. We'll connect with the community. We'll connect with the community. We'll connect with the churches. We'll connect with people just to spread the word. We'll do different things, Like I'll go on a lot of times I love going on Fox Good day LA. I'll try to spread the word there. My mom and I will do something often for Autism Awareness Month, so we just spread the word as much as we can. So we just spread the word as much as we can.
Speaker 2:You know we spend a lot of resources on our website, so that it's like everything is together and all that you need you can find on the website.
Speaker 1:User-friendly conferences.
Speaker 2:We've got about 40 employees, so we just we keep it moving. And then what's unique about us is because you know we talk about state rates and when you look at the regional center, it's connected through the Department of Disability Services and so there's only so much that you can make for these different services. But that's not going to include, for example, our drama children. They're learning about theater, they got to go to Universal Studios. None of that is covered. And so we have the Wiley Center for Speech and Language Development, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting families to be able to access the services. So a family might say I only have $500 a month for my child's school, but he has autism and I'd like him to come here.
Speaker 1:The Wiley Center will pay the remainder to help the child to be able to access the school, of course, it's need-based and it's not easy to be able to just give the money away, but we really rely on our sponsors. And what's a typical sponsor? How does one become a sponsor? And then what other?
Speaker 2:fundraisers do you do? If any? Yeah, SpeakLAcom is our website, or thewileycenterorg and all of those websites, you'll see how to be able to give. At the sponsorship level. We will like send out things to donors that we've had, like packets and things to let them know more information. And then on November the 8th, we have our big fundraising gala that's going to be taking place at the Marina Del Rey Marriott. Fancy, yeah, it should be. Yeah, so you've been there too.
Speaker 1:I was going to say we did our scholarship gala there. Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 2:I remember.
Speaker 1:Y'all using the roof? Yeah, we're using. You know, they revamped it. They. They revamped it. They, really they did.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, it's really nice, really beautiful, like they have a lounge right outside of it, like this area, and they're starting now to like do music and stuff out there, Okay, On Fridays and Saturdays.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, so it is. So I lost my train of thought. You're talking about the website sponsorship November 8th the gala, the Beyond the Label gala, and it's going to be amazing. Our galas are the best because we like really focus on just like learning about the mission of our organization and then we do something really cool, like Johnny Gill will perform.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, who's performing this year? Johnny Gill, johnny Gill's performing this year. Yes, he is. My, my, my, yes, right, johnny's going to be in there begging man. He's going to be there, right. She did the offering too. The way he begs, oh yes.
Speaker 2:He's the hardest worker I know.
Speaker 1:But you know, johnny's the man. Yes, like, not that I know him, but like yeah, it's music, so yeah, um.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's music. Speak la is for profit, it's considered for profit.
Speaker 1:Wiley center is considered the non-profit profit. So yeah, oh yeah, that's amazing what y'all got that, that structure. What advice would you give to some young entrepreneur, um, out there that want to kind of model what you all are doing, be whatever it, whatever field?
Speaker 2:I would say you know, always connect with somebody that you think is doing what you would like to do. If you don't, you know I always love that closed mouth, don't get fed on this boulevard. I think that's important. We have to speak up and we got to rely on each other. And so I think about you know, women, and they talk about how women will never run for office unless they're exactly asked. But I really recommend to young people, especially women, like, don't wait until someone asks you to do something.
Speaker 2:Just go for what you think you might want to do, whatever your heart desires, and the right people will be along the path. I'd also say, like, be about your business, will be along the path. I'd also say, like, be about your business, don't get caught up with anybody trying to? Offer you a shortcut, because that's like the worst thing that can happen because, you know, those shortcuts never result in anything, and that's a whole other story for another day.
Speaker 1:No, elaborate on that.
Speaker 2:No, I think it's important. You know like anytime that there's been a shortcut offered to me, I think there's moments where you may feel like, oh, this sounds so easy. But every single time that I've ever thought to take the easy route, it has always ended up being disastrous meaning I, like missed a step, always ended up being disastrous meaning.
Speaker 1:I like, missed a step.
Speaker 2:I wasn't as sharp as I needed to be, because I wasn't. I was trying to just take the easy way out.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I just think you have to be ready to do the work Like it's. It's not for the faint at heart. The harder that you work like you really do have to outwork, or else you will get outworked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it reminds me of a preaching moment. You know, matthew 4, temptation of Jesus. You know people are like why is it a big deal if he turned stones into bread? And it's the shortcut aspect of it. It starts with that. You know, I've fasted for 40 days, so let me feed my desire in a way that is a shortcut to the process and that's how the door opens. So just hearing you speak of that made me think about that Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that alignment component is so important, you know, and being in position to be able to just receive those blessings, I think has something as a mother of young children, like how is that in the world is ever changing?
Speaker 1:Like as you look at the landscape of society, like and you look at your kids, I mean.
Speaker 2:Like when you look at your kids, I mean yeah. Yeah, someone was saying to me just a couple of days ago like that our kids are us, just unbridled by time. And I could see that because you know, my children are me and I see them all the time doing things that maybe won't be like. Why are you doing this? Why are you on one right now? And then I have to stop myself and say you know what they're really you. So, now I try to pour into them what I think I would need.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to use that as my guide. You know I'm trying to learn them individually, but I'm also trying to just do what I know is right. It's not easy. I'm still figuring it out because, even like the social media and all this stuff that the kids see, knowing that they're confident, that they can be themselves, giving them space to talk. You know, I'm trying to do that now because but I still know I've seen a lot of young people, which it's it's really it's really encouraging to see young people that are like still coming out, like all right, so it can happen.
Speaker 2:But I just think we got to work double and triple time on what we're, what we're, how we're making them feel, how safe they feel, and I hope that I made my kids feel safe enough so that when something really goes wrong, they feel comfortable to talk to me, as opposed to just you know, not say anything.
Speaker 1:What are some of the cool connections you're out here in LA with celebrities and things like that?
Speaker 2:What's some of the cool experiences, connections you had. See that this person like I just saw one of these young men that was in the first drama show he just graduated from Johns Hopkins, had a full scholarship and is off to medical school and he surprised me at the show last Saturday and I hadn't seen him for 15 years probably.
Speaker 1:But then to see so like yeah.
Speaker 2:And then for him to say and I'd said did you remember me and he said, yeah, I remembered you. I remember you used to like give me these cookies. So to hear something like that, so that's really cool, because at the end of the day, it's really all about the clients that we serve.
Speaker 2:So, the best things occur when it relates to them. But then I'll also say, for example, you know great experiences. So, speaking of that universal studios, because we were all together and because they understood the mission of the organization, we got front of line passes and so I'm going with my kids having a good time, but I'm like this is the best universal studios trip I've ever taken yeah, I'm not lying something else right, I know I told him I'm like I'm only coming back with you guys, like I pretty much only want to come here if I'm coming with you guys.
Speaker 2:But and then you know, also like just meeting cool people, celebrities, people that are want to know about the mission of our organization and that want to connect with us. So you know, one time Johnny Gill, he like sent some of his engineering team to fix a song that the children were doing, and he came and he like took us to the recording studio and he sang with the kids.
Speaker 2:Miss Debbie Allen invited us to open up the World Special Olympics with her. And so we were there and she were working and I got a chance to sit and watch how hard of a worker she was, from sunup to sundown, like from sunup to sundown and so, and then meanwhile I'm just like with my kids, but I'm, you know, getting a chance to do some really cool things.
Speaker 2:So it's it's I really feel fulfilled and I feel like I'm like working with my passion, and also it's it's in alignment with my purpose. So I feel happy about it.
Speaker 1:Future dreams and endeavors.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'd like to change the face of autism for the world. I want to like if I could create what we do that's so special here in Los Angeles County and have it all over the country, maybe all over the world.
Speaker 1:I will feel like I have the book is kind of opening that door right. The book is opening that door.
Speaker 2:But I want like actual centers, like places where you can actually see children, like they really can be helped their whole life.
Speaker 1:It'd be good if you knew somebody in Detroit that had like connections with politicians or something Right Poor inside joke, can't do those on podcasts. Tell us about your sister.
Speaker 2:My sister. Yeah, Alexis Wiley, she's awesome. She's in Detroit. She's the former chief of staff to Mayor Duggan, who's our mayor of Detroit, our mayor. I'm not even from Detroit, but I feel like I am.
Speaker 1:Detroit represent.
Speaker 2:That's what we do to people we suck them in, yeah, detroit. So yes, she's, um, she's there and she is the principal of moment strategies and they are responsible for a lot of the campaigns and things that go on in Detroit. She helps make things work. I like call her Olivia Pope and, yeah, no, she. We actually had some people from Detroit come this summer and come to the camp and they want to be able to help us take this to other places, and so I'm I'm really looking forward to to connecting. I mean, my mom loves Detroit too. If she would go somewhere next, I could see where Detroit would be a next great place.
Speaker 1:Even with the weather? No, even with the weather.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, it's when you don't have it, but we don't really understand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's cute. Right, we're like, oh, this is so nice, where's the cold?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we conveniently don't my sister comes to the east, to the west coast in the winter there we might go down there for like 48 hours, like wow it was a snowstorm, oh we almost didn't make it out and then we made it, so that's enough for us, that's hilarious I look forward to it well, somebody might be watching.
Speaker 1:So like what, like what county, like what. What would it take to move into their county? Maybe san bernardino? Uh, what is it? Was it san bernardino? What is the valley?
Speaker 2:I would say, yeah, san bernardino, santa clarita, you know is the valley called. I would say, yeah, san Bernardino, santa Clarita, you know there's all the. So I would say, if you have access to resources, you have some idea of how to be able to make things start in your city or in your county or your parish, whatever it is, and you're tired of seeing the status quo for autism. Connect with us.
Speaker 2:Maybe we can help out. Maybe we can make something work. And if you're doing it for the right reasons, like we're doing it, everything will be aligned.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing. I think I could see that happening. I could too. I think I could see that happening.
Speaker 2:I could too.
Speaker 1:I think I could see that happening other endeavors, other things that.
Speaker 2:I mean, we talked about the book, the children's book children's book.
Speaker 1:We talked about the center I'm not running for political office.
Speaker 2:I'm happy to help, help people as needed. I like to do fundraising, um and no like. Honestly, like I feel like I'm singularly focused on helping people. Anything that helps people I'm totally here for are you still doing theater?
Speaker 1:Or you said now like so I personally don't.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I love. So you mean okay, so I still. So there's the, there's the program for the kids um drama Kings and Queens, which is the, the summer theater camp, and then also the school year social skills, and then I feel still fulfilled with at least the presentation stuff, like I like. I also at my church, West Angeles, Church of God in Christ, I do lead the voice of hospitality which that is, a ministry that focuses on announcements and welcoming is a ministry that focuses on announcements and welcoming.
Speaker 2:And so I get a chance to still connect with our congregation and present information, and I really like it.
Speaker 1:I could see what does that look like?
Speaker 2:It's video announcements, so anything from like talking about Vacation Bible School to giving some encouragement to the next person, that's scriptural, or provide reference about what might occur in the church in an easy way so that people can understand it, and I really love that.
Speaker 1:That's like so you're training people to do it or you're doing it, so I do it myself.
Speaker 2:I was the first video announcer for West Angeles years ago when we started doing videos, and now there's a lot of people that you'll see on the screen, and many of those people either were in the voices with me or were working together to be able to just be on screen. Talent and I really like video announcements like love video announcements.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like that's my like side, you know, even though, like it's just as important to me to be able to do that in ministry as it is to do this at work. Oh, wow, Just as important.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for your time, busy schedule as wife, mother, ceo, author, all these other things, thank you. And give us the website again, the telephone number again, the date of the gala again, how you can get tickets, how you can get support, how you can donate, on and on, and on and on.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we are the Los Angeles Speech and Language Therapy Center. Okay, so we are the Los Angeles Speech and Language Therapy Center. You can find us at wwwspeaklacom. We are currently enrolling for our preschool programs the typical preschool and our therapeutic preschool and we have our gala coming up on November 8th. If you would like to be involved with supporting the work of the Wiley Center and the mission, you can go to wwwthewileycenterorg. There you can give and bless us with a donation or sponsorship and you can find us through telephone at 310-649-6199. And if you would like to make sure you get a call back, even if it's from me, tell them that Dr Ashley sent you.
Speaker 1:Wow, cool. Thanks again. Thank you all for tuning in and watching this wonderful episode. Be on the lookout for more information, upcoming episodes, upcoming seasons and how you can be support of this media production. Nuance Conversations podcast. We're out.