"I don't want to get your hopes up..."

We recently had a community speech therapist come over to work with Jake. There had been a year waiting list.

She came over for an hour one day, then an hour the next day, doing an "evaluation" of his "communication".

When she was finished and we asked her how he was doing and when he might talk. She said, "I don't want to get your hopes up but someday he might make word approximations."

Trust me, you didn't get our hopes up.

Then she said she wanted us to enroll him in a program that would build a facilitated communication device - something with pictures he could show us that would tell us what he wanted.

We said, "We want him to talk." We declined her advice.

I don't like it when people read their speeches.

I think if you're taking the time to sit and listen to someone speak, you shouldn't have to be subjected to someone standing up and reading.

I understand why people read their speech - it's because they're nervous and poor at public speaking. I get it. I don't hate it; I just don't like it.

If I wanted to read, I could have read. They could have just made a photocopy of their speech and gave it to me. Then I could have read it in about a quarter of the time.

Part of the joy of hearing someone speak is getting the nuances and charisma and emotion and humour. You don't get any of that if you're watching someone read.

Cue cards are okay. Occasionally glancing down at your notes is okay. Staring down at your notes and occasionally glancing up at the audience, not okay. Reading a teleprompter, not okay.

What I'd love to see is someone starting off a speech, reading awkwardly from their notes and then suddenly getting brave and discarding them, and talking from the heart. Even if they made lots of mistakes, it would be awesome.