I am a special education teacher who worked in a variety of classroom settings supporting students with a range of disabilities. My heart lies with children who have the most significant disabilities, particularly those who do not use speech as their primary means of communication. My work over the past decade has focused on understanding the best ways to assess and teach reading and writing to children with the most severe disabilities. As a member of an interdisciplinary team from my first day in the classroom, I take pride in the fact that educators and clinicians often mistake me for a speech language pathologist. Although I have no formal training in the field, I do believe that language is at the root of learning - particularly literacy learning.