Turn of Phrase
Disability Is Created in How We Treat Each Other
3-minute read A Personal Story: Nonspeaking Communication in Public Spaces My recent Globe & Mail article turned a personal lens on the idea that disability is created in how we treat each other. If you missed the article, visit my publications link. When we...
Peer‑Led Inclusion Turns a Single Child’s Differences into Whole‑School Kindness
In an elementary classroom where peer‑led inclusion guides daily interactions, the whole school becomes a place of transformative, genuine kindness. From Pink Shirt Days to Real-World Inclusion This week, there’s been a lot of talk about pink shirt days and raising...
Peer‑Led Inclusion: Shaping Environments, Not Behaviours for Children with Disabilities
Peer‑led inclusion is the catalyst that turns a classroom from a collection of individuals into a supportive community. When schools prioritize peer‑led inclusion, they shift the focus from trying to change a child’s behaviours to reshaping the surrounding...
Public‑Space Reactions, Mattering, and the Social Model of Disability
The Noisy Public Landscape and Ges’s Communication Strategy Understanding the social model of disability and mattering in public spaces helps us see how ordinary interactions can become disabling. When Ges (“Jess”) navigates public spaces like building lobbies,...
Club G: How Collective Mattering Surpasses Individual Self‑Esteem and Elevates the Quest for True Mattering
Why Community Beats Individual Ego: The Psychology Behind Collective Mattering From a Solo Request to a School‑Wide Movement When a group of elementary‑school friends decided to form “Club G,” they weren’t just creating a pastime; they were constructing a concrete...
Finding Matter in the Imperfect: How Disability Reveals the Gap Between Belonging & Mattering
Discover how disability reveals the gap between belonging and mattering in Gordon Flett’s theory, and why small gestures like a teammate’s high‑five turn visibility into genuine value
In the Shadow of Autism Headlines: A Parent’s Story
On Monday, the New York Times published this article: “A Furious Debate Over Autism’s Causes Leaves Parents Grasping for Answers.” Exactly. I have experienced what these parents face. The last time autism received this much media attention was in the early 2000s, as...
Why Exclusion Disables, But Inclusion Empowers: Lessons from An Elementary School Playground
It’s back-to-school season. For kids, it's back to classrooms, playgrounds, and the give and take of school friendships. It's also the month when I expect we'll be reminded of exclusionary attitudes toward disability. The US Secretary of Health and Human Services,...
Appreciation to You!
Blogs don’t exist without readers, so whether you’re new to turnofphrase or a long-time loyal supporter, I thank you. Truly. Growing pains have meant none of you have received notifications of the last few posts. Here’s a link to the one published at the end of April...
What Pierre Poilievre and I May Share
I used to believe Ges’s condition—how his mind and body work—made him broken. That he was somehow “less than” because of his impairments. It was hard to talk about his disabilities because I feared judgment — that he’d be pitied. It came from a set of beliefs my...
Calling the Police Isn’t the Answer
Chase DeBalinhard was shot dead by police in a suburban Vancouver neighbourhood one afternoon in mid-February. His parents believe their fifteen-year-old boy was on his way to his schoolyard to make a video, something he enjoyed doing. Like Ges, this boy had ASD...
The Invisible Life of Florence Girard: why stories about people like my son matter
(Content warning: this post discusses unnatural death) Last week was full of horrendous news stories in my part of Canada—widespread classroom exclusion of diverse learners—details about the starving death of a woman with Down syndrome housed in a private home funded...
Five Ways to Support Writers
Follow writers on social media and subscribe to their newsletter, blog (thank you!) or website. My social media handles are: https://www.instagram.com/carmengfarrell/, (21) Carmen G. Farrell | LinkedIn, https://www.facebook.com/carmen.farrell.142/. On Instagram and...
“Hey, Chiquita!”
Normally, going to the grocery store doesn’t make me angry. But this multinational conglomerate picked the absolute wrong day to flaunt their transnational corporate attempts to sanitize their treatment of employees—especially women—in my face. stop wrecking the...
I Want the World to Be Kind to My Son
Every parent of a neurodivergent child understands and embodies this wish. It’s dangerous for me to suggest I can read the minds of other parents, but for me—someone whose child will never live independently—I am confident other parents in my situation universally...
Who’s Your Hero?
We go to every animated movie that comes to the theatres. That means this month “Inside Out 2”, “The Garfield Movie”, and it means “Despicable Me 4” next month. I love movies in theatres, and while most children grow out of cartoons, I’m okay that Ges (“Jess”), aged...
Different is Normal
I’ve been keeping a secret from you. Those of you who follow this blog, and know me and my family know the secret. Following the travel adventures on these digital pages, you wouldn’t know one of its members has disabilities that encompass physical, social, and...
How many Trinity’s Can One Province Have?
On our way to Bonavista, I read about historic Trinity Village which sounds super charming. Admittedly, I might have paid more attention to the veracity of my source material, but after my connection to the world, aka my smartphone, DIED in St. John’s I had been...
How to Enter a Newfoundlander’s Home
Here’s part of a fun quiz I read in our Newfoundland travel guide (if you’re from Newfoundland or related to a Newfoundlander, no yelling out the answer): Let’s say you’re visiting a friend, perhaps for the first time, at their house. At the front door, do you: Knock...
New Found Land
Fogo Island, Newfoundland Newfoundland. Not Newfoundland, I tell my husband. Newfoundland. Maybe as a local told us, Newfoundland. Or as a vintage travel poster from the halls of the fabulous “The Rooms” museum in St. John’s proclaimed Newfunland. In any event,...
In Indian Head, We are All Treaty People
Qu'Appelle Valley and Lake Katepwa near Indian Head, Saskatchewan The land acknowledgement was thought-provoking. I’ve lived in or been coming back to these Saskatchewan places for decades, but not for public events. I’m not used to hearing these sorts of words in...