Episode Details

David welcomes Dawnmarie Gaivin, executive director of Spellers Freedom Foundation and co-author of The Spellers Guidebook, recalling how her intensive sessions with his son Stone created a major “paradigm shift.” Gaivin shares her background in nursing and parenting two autistic sons who lost speech, her early focus on communication and literacy, and how discovering spelling/typing for communication—grounded in addressing motor planning differences like apraxia—changed her family’s trajectory and led to work that has reached over 1,000 spellers. They discuss the origins of her former business name Transcending Apraxia, the role of the film Spellers and the book Underestimated in expanding awareness, and the challenges of scaling spelling supports in schools, including mindset shifts, training standards, and preventing unintentional influence. Gaivin’s tip urges parents not to “feather the nest,” and she frames current pushback as evidence of growing momentum for communication as a civil rights issue.

Topics

00:37 Meet Dawnmarie Gaivin

02:54 A thousand spellers

03:48 Stone’s first breakthrough

07:01 From nursing to autism mom

10:11 Finding spelling for Evan

12:57 Why Transcending Apraxia

19:07 Apraxia and parent isolation

23:27 Chaos and hypervigilance

25:21 How Spellers film began

27:45 Filming Aiden’s first open

29:55 Documentary Sparks Movement

31:40 Growth of Spelling Services

32:31 Why Progress Takes Time

35:00 Bringing Spelling Into Schools

37:06 Mindset and Training Barriers

41:40 Building a School Model

47:36 Tech Access and College Wins

49:17 Tip Stop Feathering Nest

53:28 Fact or Fiction Profound Autism

57:56 Light of Week Pushback