Valley View Student Headed To Oregon For National Award

ROMEOVILLE, IL — Jeremiah Morris, an elementary student from Valley View School District, will be heading to Portland, Oregon next week to receive an award from the National Council for Exceptional Children. Jeremiah is a multi-needs second grader at Robert C. Hill Elementary, and his award is national recognition for the progress he's made in communicating using technological assistance. Jeremiah's mother Miquel Morris said his winning this award, and the prospect of going to Portland, has been at once a very proud and very new experience.

"We'll be headed [to Portland] next Wednesday, February 5th, and we'll be there until the 8th," Miquel said. "He's going to have his picture up on the main screen at the awards ceremony, they're going to do a little interview when he comes up to receive his award."

The award process began in Fall of 2019, Miquel said, when one of Jeremiah's speech therapists at Robert C. Hill, Kristen Anderson, took note of the progress he had made in communicating with the aid of computer technology. Jeremiah is autistic and has had difficulty communicating verbally, both Kristen and his mother said, but often used digital media to do his talking for him.

"He used to walk around the house and use his actual iPad, and he would go to YouTube videos and movies to express how he felt... I remember there was a time when we had a playdate at the house, a couple of little boys were over with him, and one kind of stumbled down the stairs," Miquel said. "And [Jeremiah] had his iPad and he hurried up and went to a little clip on YouTube... and it was a video of a baby in a cartoon, crying."

When Kristen noticed that Jeremiah gravitated toward digital media to help express himself, she helped him procure a digital communication device called a NovaChat. With the device's help, he found ever more ways to make himself heard, including improving his verbal skills.

"When [Jeremiah] came to us, he really wasn't communicating functionally," Kristen said. "He had pictures he could use, but he was just frustrated by it... but once we started using the higher-tech devices with him, we saw a total 180. He was more social, he wanted to engage with people, he wanted to talk with other people... It's just been really cool to see the transformation."

Kristen was so impressed by his progress with communicative technology that she nominated him in 2019 for the Illinois Council for Exceptional Children's 'Yes I Can!' award in a YouTube video. Jeremiah eventually won that nomination and received the award in November at a ceremony in Naperville. Securing the nomination also helped win him the trip to Portland, where he will be recognized for having found such ingenious ways to express himself.

"There's seven different areas you can nominate kids in, so I nominated him in the area of... 'augmentative and alternative communication,'" Kristen said. "They pick one kid from each area for the state, and then all of the state winners then get nominated for the national [award]. So that's when he also won the national award too."

The trip to Portland will be the first time Jeremiah will be on airplane, Miquel said. While she said she hoped her son would enjoy the Portland award ceremony, she added that simply getting to the airport will be what truly excites the young - and now avid - talker.

"He's going to talk nonstop about this plane ride," she said. "He doesn't understand what's going on right now, but once he actually is at the airport and sees how big planes really are in person, it's going to be a big deal for him."

All photos used with the permission of Miquel Morris. YouTube video used with the permission of Miquel Morris and Kristen Anderson.