Have you read the book
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper? It's amazing! I have read it out loud to my 6th graders for 3 years now and every time I read it, I like it more and more.
Out of My Mind is the story of a middle-school girl named Melody with cerebral palsy, extremely intelligent but unable to speak without the aid of a machine (which she obtains only midway through the story) and unable to complete basic tasks like dressing or feeding herself.
Out of My Mind chronicles Melody’s struggle to fit in when she is allowed to attend regular education classrooms. It also describes her struggle with not being able to express herself to a world that largely sees only her disability. Melody has a photographic memory and she enters a quiz bowl competition, surpassing her classmates in trials, providing her with the opportunity to show the world her intelligence or at least her ability to comprehend, compete, and retain information. Unfortunately, because her disability makes her classmates uncomfortable, her chance is stolen, and her inability to communicate effectively, swiftly, and without aid leads to further tragedy, which ultimately is resolved happily enough, but was quite a gut punch from Draper to her readers.
http://sharondraper.com/bookdetail.asp?id=35
If you have not read this book, it's a must read!
