Judy Chinitz, MS, MS
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
NEW YORK STATE LICENSED, SPECIAL EDUCATION
CERTIFIED PRACTITIONER

Judy earned her Bachelor's degree in English literature from Columbia University.  She holds two Master in Science degrees, one in Special Education, the second in nutrition. Judy not only teaches students to spell/type for communication; she also runs literature appreciation, poetry classes, and creative writing here at M2H.

Alex and Judy's Story:

My son, Alex, was diagnosed with autism at 2 years old and spent his entire school career in programs for the profoundly cognitively disabled.  As a special educator myself, I did everything I knew - and learned what I didn't know - to try to teach Alex even one academic skill, and give him some means of expressing himself.  I spent those 21 school-age years failing to do either, or so I believed. While Alex seemed to have some receptive language, his expressive language was limited to just a few words, most of which were unintelligible. 

When Alex turned 21 and aged out of the public school system, I placed him in a daycare program for those with severe cognitive disability.  As far as I knew, his functioning level was that of a preschooler at best.  I love my son more than anything on earth, and thought I was doing the right thing when I sat him in front of Thomas the Tank Engine videos and read him Disney princess stories. But...

In July of 2019, when Alex was 25 1/2 years old, I discovered a method of teaching Alex to spell using a letter board.  It was mind blowing! I learned, then, that all the motor impairments I had recognized in my son all these years - the inability to control his eye movements, the inability to point normally, the inability to control volitional motor movements - had prevented him, for his entire life, from showing me that he has both normal language and exceptional intelligence.  He didn't just know his letters, I discovered, but had been reading since he was 2 years old and knew more than I could ever have imagined.

Alex can now participate in life in a way I could never have dreamed of:  real interaction with me and his brother, friends, conversation, games, education, are all now his.  In August, 2021, he passed New York State's high school equivalency exam  with distinction, and is now in college.

If I had not witnessed what I have witnessed, I would not have believed it either.  In fact, when I began this process, I did it only because I never could bring myself NOT to try everything...not really because I believed Alex had intact language and cognition.

For obvious reasons then, I have devoted myself to bringing the gift of communication to everyone I possibly can. 

As both a parent and a professional, I can only say to you that you don't know until you have tried this.  I had spent 25 1/2 years of my son's life failing him because everything I thought I knew was wrong.  I didn't really know my own child. 

I feel fortunate that my education and experience equips me to offer you this possibility, because you may not know your loved one as well as you think you do.