Unlocking the words inside your child

Spelling to Express-S2E is committed to teaching nonspeaking, minimally speaking, and unreliably speaking individuals how to use spelling to express themselves. Our mission is to meet the needs of our clients with motor and sensory differences. We believe that communication and motor control leads to autonomy, independence and inclusion. S2E teaches clients with motor challenges the purposeful motor skills necessary to point to letters to spell as an alternate means of communication. The goal is to achieve synchrony between the brain and the body. The goal is to teach purposeful motor skills using a hierarchy of verbal and gestural prompts. As motor skills improve through consistent practice, students progress from forming words by pointing to letters on letterboards to typing on a keyboard. Likewise, communication moves from concrete to abstract as motor skills improve.

About Kelly

Kelly is a special education teacher who received her undergraduate degree in elementary education and her master’s degree in Special Education. Kelly has been employed by the Canton Public School System since December 1989. She has held her current position as a special education teacher since January 1995, teaching grades 7-12. In 2005, Kelly was asked to start a program for autistic children and from that moment found her true passion, working with the population of nonspeaking individuals.

Kelly began incorporating aspects of applied behavioral analysis into her practice and, in addition to working at school, began to work in the homes and with families of nonspeakers. Through her relationships with the families of her students she learned about Spell to Communicate and immediately signed up to become a certified practitioner.

Kelly has been recognized as the CT Middle School Teacher of the Year, Canton Public School’s Teacher of the Year and featured as the Hometown Hero. She is known to think outside of the box and do whatever is needed to help her students reach their potential.

After finishing her coursework through the International Association of Spell to Communicate, Kelly began her new business Spelling to Express at 111 Main Street in Collinsville.