Spellers Series:
“The Spellers Method” with Dawnmarie Gaivin
Dawnmarie Gaivin, is the cofounder of Spellers MethodTM and the Executive Director of Spellers Freedom Foundation. A former trauma and transplant nurse who spent more than a decade working in prestigious teaching hospitals in Boston and San Francisco, when she became a mother in 2003, her life took an unexpected turn. By 2006, both of her children had been diagnosed with nonspeaking autism.
Driven by an unwavering commitment to help her boys find their voices, Dawnmarie transformed her career. She became an assistive technology specialist and a DIR/Floortime® provider, ultimately founding Spellers Center - San Diego in 2017 and co-founding the revolutionary Spellers Method.
Featured in the SPELLERS documentary, her impact has rippled far beyond her own family. Let’s listen in as Dawnmarie shares her story.
Bio:
Dawnmarie Gaivin, RN, AT-ACP, is a former trauma and transplant nurse who spent more than a decade working in prestigious teaching hospitals in Boston and San Francisco. When she became a mother in 2003, her life took an unexpected turn - by 2006, both of her children had been diagnosed with nonspeaking autism. Driven by an unwavering commitment to help her boys find their voices, Dawnmarie transformed her career. She became an assistive technology specialist and a DIR/Floortime® provider, ultimately founding Spellers Center - San Diego in 2017 and co-founding the revolutionary Spellers MethodTM. Her impact rippled far beyond her own family. In March 2021, speller Jamison Handley and his father JB chronicled their transformative journey with Dawnmarie in their book Underestimated, revealing how spelling opened entirely new pathways to communication. The movement continued to gain momentum. In 2023, the documentary SPELLERS was released, powerfully demonstrating how spelling and typing as AAC methodologies have liberated countless nonspeakers from lives of silence. This was followed in 2024 by Underestimated.tv, which illuminated more profound journeys of nonspeakers after they gained access to open communication. Today, as Executive Director of Spellers Freedom Foundation - a 501(c)(3) public charity - Dawnmarie has expanded her reach far beyond San Diego. The foundation empowers every speller to flourish through access to communication, community-building, and scholarships. She remains equally passionate about ensuring students with alternative communication needs receive age-appropriate curriculum throughout their lifespans, a commitment that has inspired her to pursue a master's degree in educational leadership. What drives her is a life mission that’s as clear as it is urgent: to dismantle the long-rooted paradigms that prevent nonspeakers from living their fullest, most inclusive lives possible - not just in one community, but everywhere. You can learn more about her work at www.spellers.com and www.spellersfreedomfoundation.org.
www.spellersfreedomfoundation.org
https://www.spellersfreedomfoundation.org/how-to-help www.spellers.com www.underestimated.tv
Instagram: @spellers_freedomfoundation @spellers__
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/spellerscommunity/
https://www.facebook.com/spellersfreedomfoundation https://www.facebook.com/spellersrev
The Spellers Guidebook on Amazon: https://a.co/d/2m3pcXf Underestimated on Amazon: https://a.co/d/iWOZQZg
Spellers the Movie: https://www.spellersfreedomfoundation.org/spellers-the-movie
For a family raising a child with special needs, life can be difficult. There are many storms to weather and struggles to address, and we often feel isolated and alone due to the nature of our circumstances. Families have a need to connect and find resources, a need to be encouraged, and a need for hope as we walk down what can be a very hard road at times. Hope on the Hard Road Special Needs Podcast was created for this purpose. Our vision is to grow a thriving community, where families with children of all ages with special needs can feel connected, be encouraged, and find hope for the road ahead.
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