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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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Building Functional Communication: Empowering Families Through Evidence-Based Caregiver Intervention
Communication is a tool that takes many different forms. When most people hear this word, they think of verbal communication, as used in this article. However, even within verbal communication, there are many ways of expressing ideas, needs, and thoughts. Some of these methods of communication are...
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Mental Health Care for People Who Use AAC: Rationale and Practice
Introduction: A Speller's POV Therapists are my heroes — they transform problems into paths toward the future you want to build. I was scared to start. My psychiatrist told me that meds alone would not solve my anxiety, and she encouraged me to give therapy a try. Dreams make work, and...
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Freeing the Mind: A Nonspeaking Autistic’s Case for Presuming Competence
Many nonspeakers are still locked in the prison of their own mind. Nonspeakers are underestimated because our bodies and brains are disconnected. Our minds work, but not with our body, so people conclude we are unintelligent. Apraxia is not well understood by parents, teachers, therapists, and the...
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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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Supporting Emotional Regulation in Non-Speaking Children
Every parent of a non-speaking child knows the moment. The grocery store gets too loud, a routine shifts without warning, a sibling grabs the wrong toy, and a child who seemed fine a minute ago is on the floor, or running, or frozen. Adults nearby may see "bad behavior." What is actually happening...
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Supporting Social Communication in Autism: A Review of Evidence-Based Speech Therapy Approaches
When people think about autism and communication challenges, they often focus on speech itself. However, many autistic children develop age-appropriate vocabulary and grammar while continuing to experience significant difficulties with social communication. These challenges may include...
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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...
