You Are My Sunshine

Updated 8/19/2016
              9/12/2015

/19

The Stevie Wonder song "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" came on. I was flooded with memories of singing my first song since opening my eyes after a coma. The title of that first song is similar, "You Are My Sunshine."

I knew all the words to the main verse. Everyone else just knew the first sentence. At the time I had no clue this was a sign of the neuroplasticity that was also going on inside me.

I remember singing at the nurse's station. Vocalizing didn't come from speech therapy. It came from nurses. I still had speech therapy at this time. Speech therapy would have been surprised by all the sound I was making.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
you make me happy, when skies are gray,
you'll never know dear, how much I love you,
please don't take my sunshine away.

Speech Therapy ended as soon as I left that place. My medical insurance ran out. The government plan picked up and any therapy stopped.

I left that place able to vocalize, so I continued the therapy on my own. I did mostly singing and reading aloud. Using my language to communicate was a natural built-in exercise. Family didn't understand why I didn't use my communication board. I think my speech turned out well.
 

 

Update   8/19/2016
Giving up the communication board is a technique in speech and special education. It would be "going it alone."