SPELLERS

Have you seen Spellers?

What an incredible documentary based on the book “Underestimated” about non-speakers with autism learning how to communicate through letterboards and other devices.

It has had a profound impact and has won prestigious awards.

These nonspeakers whose lives are followed in the movie felt imprisoned in their minds for most of their lives until their families pursued the spell-to-communicate approach better known as S2C.

Most of these kids were written off as low functioning with extremely limited potential due to being nonverbal.

Little did anyone realize that many of these kids are brilliant but have verbal apraxia where there is a disconnect between the brain and their mouth not allowing them to speak.

Up to 30 % of children with ASD are non-speakers or minimally verbal.

The stars of the movie are displaying their amazing skills, and our community is in awe.

Some of these nonspeakers didn’t start S2C until they were teenagers, so don’t ever lose hope.

These families persisted despite many of the naysayers and struggles that encountered.

There’s always an opportunity at any age to see improvement in our kids.

Don’t get caught up in the dogma that a window closes for a child when they reach a certain age.

I have seen numerous children and adults make tremendous strides no matter what age.

The S2C movement is starting to work with children who are verbal but are unreliable speakers.

You should work with your health care provider to see if there’s any underlying cause of the apraxia even if you’re working with an S2C practitioner.

#spellers #ASD #autism