Hi, I'm Savy Hester, and I firmly believe that the only way out is through, and the only way through is, together. I have lived over 15 years in the world of profound Deaf Autism with my youngest brother we fostered to adopt starting at 6 and then even more tied as I met Tig, my daughter also at 6 who was also Profoundly Deaf and Autistic.  I have had the privilege of experiencing trainings and support over the years as a :

• Registered Behavior Technician in both Washington state and Oklahoma state

• DCS I/II, Teacher's Aide, Coach, Crisis Prevention and Intervention Trainer, Conscious Discipline Mentor and Teacher at Oklahoma School for the Deaf, Academic,

• Behavior lead, Academic Lead, Assistant Director, Director at Texoma Autism & Behavior Intervention School

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However, I think the majority of my perspective was shaped be raised in a specialty foster home that focused on special needs children, often with trauma or neglect. I benefitted from being hyperlexic early on and my mom (who is now a BCBA and former Deaf Ed Teacher who taught Elementary Special Education at Oklahoma School for the Deaf for a decade) was a special education teacher who at one point even did lectures for Bureau of Educational Research around the country.  When my mom and I met CJ we both joined a local college (Bellevue College, at that time BCC) and stayed until fluent and had the benefit of 2 Deaf teachers.  I have spent every summer since age 7 laminating PECS or making folder games with siblings who needed them for foundational support to get going.  I learned how to watch for gaps and to find and adapt tools as needed.

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I watched our state Deaf school struggle with our Autistic students with language deprivation including my brother and daughter once Caroline wasn't impacting their education and it broke my heart. My final year at OSD was the year of the Sulphur tornado and my first year teaching 3rd and 4th grade.  The tornado took my roof but the sudden halt made me look around and realize we needed to pause. I started homeschooling Tig and she took off! We were back to reading again, now doing multiplication when her classroom math book in 2023 was number identification to 20. We recently had our reassessment for ASD and we barely had enough barriers to qualify for Level 1 or Low Support Needs. We went from eating 5 foods at age 6 to age 12 she is the best eater in the family. 

 

Cj's High School Special Ed teacher during his parent teacher conference looked me dead in the face and said "we both know he's capped, right?". Wrong.  He spent a long hard time having to relearn skills every time a group home or emergency hospital overmedicated him for compliance. He was severely abused as a child, one of the worst cases in WA state history, with no language... He's now 23 and we hang out weekly, talk daily, but he needs more language support and he's aged out of the school system, even though he didn't have the education he was supposed to be provided.

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I want to build a Deaf Autism/ Sign Based Autism School, start as a microschool but we have already talked to OSDE for accreditation but a building and being open is required for that. My goal is for the school to be funded by local community businesses who could use the 35,000k write-off or partner with other businesses to partially sponsor these seats.  My students are the students our state Deaf schools say "Autism supersedes Deafness" for reason of denial, we want the students that the public school teachers are fighting for resources and needing help to install language.  I want the kids that were supposed to be covered by public funds and public schools, but they aren't.  I want a year round school where the parents pay tuition by showing up for their 2x weekly ASL class and their weekly 1:1 for inhome support, and monthly social group.  Our students will have the option to use us as our main goal, a bridge.  Let us help you get skills, get language, then go on your own adventure.  My goal is not to keep Tig with me, but for her to go back to High School freshman year but have the language and academics to be ready for general education at OSD or wherever the road takes us. I have a highly skilled and trained board that is all on board and ready to help build our students individualized Maps for their time at Map Maker whether that's bridging out or building independence and ability to navigate the world around them.