There are multiple topics for this issue. Please follow along with them….

Subsrcibers

Spedtalk has grown. From the first two subscribers, the list is now approaching 200 subscribers. Please keep on telling others about the magazine. Use the "share" button. It's still free—all of it—and I hope that readers are finding it worth reading.

So far, I have limited my solicitations of subscriptions. I have advertised spedtalk to those of you who are members of a mailing list mostly composed of academics who conduct research about special education and to those who have subscribed to the free version. These are my peeps, and I like having them read this site. But the site is not aimed at researchers and such. I hope that it helps teachers, parents, administrators, and similar folks who are concerned about the education of individual children and youth with disabilities to secure better services for those individuals with disabilities!

Soon, I plan to widen the solicitation of readers. I'll go to some social media and such. And I hope that you readers will continue to disseminate word about this resource to others with similar concerns.

Spedtalk, the name

There is a hitch in this get-along, though, as I reported last week. It appears that an attorney applied to the US Patent and Trademark Office to secure a trademark on "spedtalk." Apparently, the application does not recognize that I have been using "spedtalk" since the early 1990s. My common-law trademark may not hold, and that I have owned the domain name, "spedtalk.*" for > 20 years, may not matter. Indeed, it seems that because I did not seek to make money during my historic use of "spedtalk," the new applicants have leverage.

So, I alert you to the possibility that "spedtalk" may be robbed from us. Our community since the early 1990s may be declared defunct because I failed to register the name officially. I apologize for this apparent oversight.

For right now, I think we are OK saying "https//www.spedtalk.com/" and persisting with our efforts to promote improved services for individuals with disabilities, their teachers, and their parents. If I have to change the name, I'll let folks know.

Current Contents

This week, you can find articles covering news, editorial matters, and et cetera.

• There is a note about the woes of the Sprout Film Festival. The venerable program is closing because of financial problems. Sprout had a great run and I hope it can come back soon. https://www.spedtalk.com/p/news-sprout-films-cuts-back

• We had a post about treating pica, the problem of some children mouthing or eating materials that are dangerous. How do people (parents & teachers) address this problem? https://www.spedtalk.com/p/news-advising-parents-about-pica

• I posted an editorial about "brain-based education." I'm surprised by how many legs this idea has (is it a millipede?), but how little scientific support it has—especially when its advocates routinely claim research and science as foundational principles. https://www.spedtalk.com/p/editorial-brain-based-education

Your observations

One of the reasons that I built SpedTalk (and its predecessors and successors) is to engender civil, informed, and collegial discussion of matters that concern individuals with disabilities, their parents and teachers, and others who give a darn about those matters. I want to take this moment in the SpedTalk newsletter to encourage readers not simply to read the posts, but to comment on them, to discuss them with others who comment on them, to contribute to the commonweal of individuals with disabilities by helping to promote evidence-based and logic-informed conversation.

So, please comment on posts. I was pleased to see comments by "jesse" and "Jim Kauffman" on recent posts. I hope that readers will engage with each other (and me) regarding the ideas on posts.

And, I hope everyone is well, safe, and happy. Please remember to take care of each other, and to teach your children well.

JohnL

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