CUE Communication Universally Empowers

CUE Communication Universally Empowers We offer in-clinic (or onsite small radius around downtown Cary) language, regulation and feeding intensive services to children 0-18 years of age.
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We offer virtual consultation to families around the world

05/29/2026

I brought out a microscope today thinking that would be the exciting part of our session.

But then something else caught her attention.

I could have labeled this moment as “distraction.”
I could have pulled her attention back to the microscope.
But why?
Why wouldn’t I follow the thing that was naturally compelling her?

Together, we explored why birds can fly and why our bodies work differently.
We experimented.
Problem solved.
Imagined.
Moved.
Connected.
And language kept growing through it all.

Within this playful moment, she demonstrated remarkable gestalt flexibility, symbolic play, motor planning, shared joy, and spontaneous communication. She also successfully answered multiple questions — a skill that is still emerging and not yet consistently accessible at her current stage of gestalt language processing.

This is the beauty of following a child’s interests instead of immediately redirecting them back to “the activity.”

Because most of the time, the richest learning happens when we are willing to leave the plan behind long enough to enter their world. 💛





05/25/2026

Questions and gestalt language processing

Well…it is evident I need to grow my Harry Potter knowledge (maybe even start reading the books) to support his newest special interest.

In the higher stages of gestalt language processing as gestalts becomes more flexible, communication partners can start to integrate questions into communication with gestalt language processors 🤗

Sometimes with gestalt languages processors it may seem like they don’t know that answer to questions posed to them. Many gestalt language processors are perceived to have comprehension challenges for this reason.

But as always with gestalt language processors this issue is not the child and how they process language, but how langauge is modeled or posed to them.

So let’s shift OUR approach so gestalt language processors can share answers to our questions that aligns with the thoughts and ideas in their head.

When gestalt language processors have language have language flexible brought for questions.
I always ask the question as I would for the highest level of gestalts language use
Then I add layers of supports as the needs:

1. Ask the question without supports
-e.g.
2. Tell me about…(give more time for the child to answer that I did in this moment) (I knew he was very dysregulated and most likely wouldn’t have access to language with this level of support)
-e.g. “tell me more about Voomos”
3. Offer a lead phrase for the child to continue
-e.g. harry says voomos when…
4. Offer two choice if you know the answer the question you are asking

Sometimes the child won’t stays in the communication space for all these levels, sometimes all these supports won’t empower the child to answer the question. In that case:
-is the child immersed in something and can’t shift their focus
-is the environment loud or have competing sounds impacting auditory processing?
-is the child’s current level of gestalt language processing currently flexible enough to support asking questions

When we adjust the way we communicate, we often discover the child had far more to say all along





05/24/2026

You can literally see my body go into alert mode when he grabbed those scissors 😳

Not my most regulated therapist moment.

But the truth is…my nervous system was responding to what had happened the day before. This week he had been making some unsafe choices with scissors, so my body moved fast to protect both of us. I was so focused on getting the scissors out of reach that I completely missed his quiet little:

“I’ll be really safe.”

Later, once we sat down and my body was regulated enough to slow down and listen, he gave me the most incredible argument for why he wanted the “teacher scissors”:

“Can I do teacher scissors because it better for me to cut, it makes it easier for me to cut.”

The flexibility.
The self-advocacy.
The problem solving.
The ridiculously flexible gestalts.

This is what higher-level gestalt language development can look like 🤯

You can see on my face how blown away I was by his message. Because this wasn’t scripting to fill space. This was self-generated communication with intention, reasoning, and advocacy.

So of course I gave him another chance to use the scissors — while supporting both his body and my body in staying safe while he used them 💛

05/21/2026

A full circle moment today 🐞

The second we walked into the room, her body reacted fast. She screamed “A BUG!” and ran out to get me.

So instead of immediately removing it, we slowed down and got curious together.

We talked about how sometimes our bodies send us fear signals before we have all the information. Then we investigated:
Was this actually a bug her body needed to fear?

We moved closer.
It was a ladybug.

We grabbed a child friendly microscope and explored its tiny features up close. We watched it clean its little face, and suddenly the fear shifted into wonder.

Together, we decided the ladybug would probably feel happiest outside. We carefully loaded it onto a piece of paper to place on a flower…

…but before we could, it spread its wings and flew away on its own.

Then as we walked back inside, I noticed something for the very first time:
She had been wearing a ladybug shirt the entire day 🥹🐞

What are the chances?

These are the moments I love most in therapy.
Not forcing fear away.
Not rushing regulation.
But creating enough safety for curiosity, connection, learning, and self-generated meaning to emerge.

Sometimes communication grows best through shared wonder 💛

05/19/2026

This microscope has become so much more than a toy in our sessions 💛

As we explored a yellow pipe cleaner under the lens, my client suddenly said “lelo.” Then he kept building meaning layer by layer…

“Addie says yellow.”

He told me who Addie was to him.
How old Addie is.
Compared himself to his cousin.
Corrected my assumptions with nuanced tone and flexible gestalts.
And kept adding specificity until I fully understood the story he was sharing.

My jaw honestly dropped.

Because this little gestalt language processor is operating at the tippy top of gestalt language development: communicating about a COMPLETELY out-of-context topic while flexibly expanding, clarifying, comparing, and repairing communication in real time.

And the best part?
None of this came from drills or forced conversation prompts.

It unfolded naturally through curiosity, connection, imagination, and shared exploration.

Simple open-ended tools like this can create space for incredibly high-level language, deep regulation, and authentic communication to emerge naturally 🙌🏽

(And yes… we are LOVING this easy-to-use microscope because it is sparking SO much conversation.)

05/19/2026

One session, my client decided we both needed to become mummies covered in tape 😂

The next session, another little one noticed the tape still stuck to me and immediately asked about it. So I told her about the little boy before her who turned us both into mummies 🥹

For one tiny moment, two therapy worlds overlapped.

One child left their mark, and another got a glimpse into the joy that came before them.

Sometimes the sweetest parts of this work are the unexpected little connections in between sessions.

05/19/2026

She lit up the moment she saw herself in the book.

A company created a fully customized story featuring her throughout the pages, and at first, she was so excited seeing her own face in the book.

But pretty quickly, her body told us something important:
reading the full storyline was too much.

Maybe there were too many words. Maybe the story felt too disconnected to hold meaning for her in that moment. Maybe she was thinking about what she wanted to play with in my toy bag.

Later in the session, she brought the book back out to show her aide. This time, she flipped through the pages and told her own story.

That’s when the magic happened.

Even though the book was personalized with her photos and showcased Black individuals who impacted our history, it still needed one more thing to truly become hers:
her voice.
her ideas.
her meaning.
her interpretation.

And once she took ownership of the story, the engagement completely changed.

Sometimes the most powerful literacy moments happen when children are given space to move beyond the scaffolding of the written words and storyline… and into creating one for themselves through imagination.

*side note* can we get a moment for her “make it easy ‘bout” her parents call it her “glue”. It is the best description instead of filler words “um” and “uh” she has a “filler gestalt” and I am in love with it.

Address

Cary, NC

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+19198026122

Website

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