Kathie, I had the pleasure of having you as a speaker in Lancaster, PA at our C2P2 (Partners in Policymaking) training session in April 2010.

I wanted to wait until I finished reading your book before writing to you. Yes, it took me three months to finish, having two children and a full-time job, and your book and your presentation have changed my whole outlook!

The morning after your presentation, the training coordinator asked us how everyone felt. Some parents said they were so shaken by your message that they couldn't sleep at all. I told everyone that for the first time since the news of my son's diagnosis 30 months ago, I slept like a baby—so peacefully. Your words and ideas were exactly what I needed to get all the confusion out of the way. Like you at one time, I was a great "therapy mom," and I even taught my niece the therapy-version of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"! My son, Alex, didn't know the real version of that song until I taught it to him when I arrived home after the training session.

Now, when I meet other moms with kids with disabilities, I always bring up your name and tell them about People First Language. When I hear others not using People First Language, the alarm in my brain goes off!

I appreciate your helping us realize that once a child is segregated in a special class, it's likely he/she will be segregated for the rest of his/her life. We're going through the 3-5 transition now, and thank God we started after I heard your talk. We were told about "half typical and half special programs" that look reasonable because the child gets more services that way, but there's still segregation! I've already enrolled Alex in a neighborhood preschool for three half-days a week, just like other three-year-olds! His first IEP meeting is coming up, and since I finished reading your book, I feel pretty well-armed for the meeting. I have great faith in Alex, and as I learned from you, I believe the less help he gets, the better he'll end up doing!

Thank you very much for helping me find the way that I—without having an idea where I was going—was looking for on this journey. And thanks for helping our family get out of Disability World and for throwing us back into the Real World where we belong! We happily cancelled therapies for almost two weeks and went on a vacation!

Cecilia L. from Pennsylvania