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A 30-Year Journey From Skepticism to Acceptance: Reconsidering the Authenticity of Assisted Communication of Nonspeakers
My introduction to assisted communication (AC) for nonspeaking and minimally speaking individuals was in reference to facilitated communication (FC). During July of 1991 at the Autism Society of America's annual conference, I was asked to participate on a panel that was hastily organized to have an...
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Autistic Lived Experience: Re-Thinking the Reasons for Past Behaviors
A late autism identification has a tendency to change one's perspective on things. My own identification at age 40 is certainly a case in point. Many questions for which there were never satisfactory explanations, answered. A half-baked self-identity made whole. In essence, a newly discovered lens...
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Studying Understanding Without Speech: Neuroimaging Minimally Speaking Autistic Individuals
Minimal speakers (MS) represent one-third of the autism spectrum, yet only 2% of autism research participants (Russell et al., 2019). Research conclusions based on people unlike minimal speakers in significant ways may be skewed, leading to profound misunderstanding. We aim to correct...
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Rethinking Evidence-Based Practice for Supporting Nonspeaking Individuals
In considering the issue of evidence-based practice (EBP), we take on a deceptively simple question—what counts as "evidence" of effectiveness of approaches in supporting the communication of nonspeaking autistic individuals? Beneath that question lies a deeper and more contentious issue—how...
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The Evolution of Training for Facilitated Communication
I first learned about facilitated communication (FC) in 1991 when a colleague shared with me Professor Douglas Biklen's 1990 article in the Harvard Educational Review, “Communication Unbound: Autism and Praxis.” This article was a qualitative research study on the method based on his...
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Very Great Sound: The Case for Teaching Poetry to Nonspeaking Autistic Students
Last April, I found myself in a Stockholm studio, sitting next to my college buddy Spencer Reece, with whom I'd taken my first creative writing course forty-three years ago—our teacher was the Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Dillard. We had traveled to Sweden to teach our own creative writing...
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What Parents Should Know About ASHA’s Position Statement on Spelling Methodologies
Ninth grade was a turning point for my nonverbal daughter with autism. After years in a life skills classroom, she moved into an academic setting. For the first time, she was studying algebra instead of counting money and writing paragraphs instead of discussing the weather each morning. This...
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The Work Before the Work: Lessons From Co-Designing Assistive Technology With Nonspeaking Autistic People
"I still struggle to put into words what it felt like to finally communicate in a personal, voluntary, and unscripted way. I've described it before as a prison door opening, but it was even more profound than that – more freeing, more life-changing." – Lisa, nonspeaking co-author For...
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Could It Be Oral Pain? An Overlooked Piece of the Puzzle for Children With Autism and ADHD
Author's Note: Recent trends in language use within the autism community reflect differing preferences regarding identity-first language (e.g., "autistic person") and person-first language (e.g., "person with autism"). In this article, both styles are used to reflect the diverse preferences of...
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If Autism Research Requires Brain Tissue, Why Aren’t People Donating?
For researchers who study autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions, postmortem brain tissue is a critical scientific resource that cannot be replicated by imaging technologies, tissue culture, animal experiments or artificial intelligence. However, survey results published by Autism...
