{"id":385,"date":"2024-06-28T20:12:09","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T20:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=385"},"modified":"2025-02-03T20:23:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T20:23:39","slug":"tika-speaks-a-12-year-old-girl-who-was-born-prematurely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2024\/06\/28\/tika-speaks-a-12-year-old-girl-who-was-born-prematurely\/","title":{"rendered":"Tika Speaks: A 12-year-old girl who was born prematurely"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>TIKA SPEAKS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Elise M. Washington<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Illustrated by Tyrus Goshay<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of us have heard the saying \u201cWhen life hands you lemons, make lemonade.\u201d When it comes to our children, particularly those who have special needs, there are ways we can look at their strengths and support them in being the amazing children they already are. This month, I will be recognizing winners of the Planting People Growing Justice Book Awards, starting with Elise Washington\u2019s children\u2019s book Tika Speaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tika is a 12-year-old girl who was born prematurely, spending her first five months in an incubator in the hospital. Unlike her 7-year-old brother Ollie, Tika has experienced developmental delays, the biggest one being her speech. Her class in school is small, in order to better meet the needs of the students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To help Tika with articulation and pronunciation, she has a speech teacher in school, Mrs. Jasmine, and a speech therapist outside school, Ms. Rahkel. She practices gymnastics to aid her coordination and dreams of becoming a track star like Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith Joyner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Her parents and her grandmother are Tika\u2019s staunch advocates in getting her the help she needs as a special needs student, and her mother\u2019s efforts pay off when Tika gets an interview at the Speech School for Special Learners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the African and African American diaspora, Washington\u2019s book is a must-read because of the respect in which it treats children with special needs and their families. It includes a comprehensive Parent Resource Glossary at the end, as well as highlighted words in the book for teaching purposes. It encourages literacy and reading for both Ollie and Tika, as well as supporting their respective interests. Most important are the positive encouragement, reinforcement, and love shown by her family and her teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For her work, Washington received an honorable mention for Book of the Year in the Planting People Growing Justice Book Awards. As an attendee to the ceremony, I considered it an honor to be among such amazing authors. I also give a shout-out to Tyrus Goshay for the way his illustrations manifested Washington\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tika Speaks is available through Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, and Tgosketch Press (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tgosketch.com\/\">www.tgosketch.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thank you, Elise, for the love, care, and advocacy you demonstrated in bringing this book to fruition. Representation matters!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TIKA SPEAKS By Elise M. Washington Illustrated by Tyrus Goshay Many of us have heard the saying \u201cWhen life hands you lemons, make lemonade.\u201d When it comes to our children, particularly those who have special needs, there are ways we can look at their strengths and support them in being the amazing children they already [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[182,118,181],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-african-american-diaspora","tag-childrens-book","tag-planting-people-growing-justice-book-awards","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Tika-Speaks-e1738614212797.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":387,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions\/387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}