Support for Nonspeakers and Their Families

by Lili Story, Certified Spelling to Communicate Practitioner

Do you know a nonspeaker or unreliable speaker? Spelling to Communicate (S2C) gives nonspeakers and unreliable speakers access to robust and unlimited communication via letterboards and specialized motor training. Thousands of individuals use S2C as their primary means of communication and have demonstrated they are competent and able to direct their own lives.

Spelling to Communicate is the provenance of the International Association for Spelling as Communication (I-ASC). The mission of I-ASC is to provide access to communication for all. To paraphrase the founder, Speech Language Pathologist Elizabeth Vosseller: With nonspeakers the issue is not an inability to learn or an unwillingness to learn, it is that the body can’t do what the brain is asking without proper motor training and regulation support.

Why S2C is Effective

Communication always involves motor skills, and all traditional forms of communication–including speaking, writing, and sign language—require fine motor proficiency. Apraxia is when there is difficulty with deliberately initiating, sustaining, and stopping motor actions due to a brain-body disconnect. For individuals with apraxia, fine motor actions are far more challenging to manage than gross motor ones. This is why standard modes of communication are unreliable and inadequate, and why many nonspeakers have been unable to express their true abilities. S2C uses gross motor skills to select letters on letterboards to spell words. By supporting regulation and training the body in specific and attainable gross motor movements, nonspeakers can use letterboards to communicate reliably and participate in the world with agency and autonomy.

Our Services

Lili Story is a certified S2C Practitioner seeing private clients in-person at our office in Port Hadlock, Washington. To find out how you can help nonspeakers gain access to communication, contact Lili at:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

(360)-732-4356

What Is Spelling to Communicate?

By Lili Story, Certified S2C Practitioner

Most of us have been taught to look at nonspeakers through a lens that has proven to be inaccurate. IQ testing and other methods traditionally used to assess intelligence all require fine motor skills and purposeful movement capability to answer questions and demonstrate competence. These actions are precisely what nonspeakers and unreliable speakers struggle with because of their apraxia. Similarly, an individual's speech output is not a reliable indication of their internal thoughts, or language proficiency. 

Language vs. Communication

Language and communication occur in different parts of the brain. Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas are responsible for the various aspects of language comprehension. These areas are functioning the same for nonspeakers as they are for speakers. The motor cortexes of the brain govern our ability to move and therefore express ourselves, i.e., communicate: It is here that nonspeakers have atypical function.

All communication is predicated on movement, and the forms of communication we commonly use—such as speaking, writing, typing, and sign language—rely on fine motor proficiency. Because of apraxia, the standard methods of communication are unattainable or unreliable for nonspeakers even though they are fully language proficient. This is why nonspeakers do not want to be labeled "nonverbal", because it implies an individual is without language capability. However, "nonspeaking" clarifies that language is present and speech is the challenge. S2C gives nonspeakers a modality that uses gross motor movements to spell, thereby allowing them to transform language into communication.

Presuming Competence

Many of us have experienced being tongue-tied, or saying something different than intended. You know exactly what you are trying to communicate, but a disconnect occurs in your ability to form words in that moment, and an error results. Now imagine your "tongue-tie" is exponentially more severe and applies to your whole body, your entire life.

You understand everything, but you cannot show it.

If all testing uses motor skills to convey answers, and you cannot reliably move your body well, how could someone accurately assess your intelligence or language comprehension? We give the benefit of the doubt to infants, and to older individuals who could speak prior to an accident or disease onset, for example, Stephen Hawking. Now, the self-advocates—nonspeakers who are communicating fully via the letterboards—have proven that we need to presume competence in everyone. It is imperative that we treat all nonspeakers the same as we would anyone their age, regardless of how they are presenting or scoring on traditional assessments. To paraphrase Dr. Vaishnavi Sarathy, the mother of a nonspeaker, "Assumption of intelligence brings respect, and respect brings dignity."
See Dr. Sarathy’s TEDxTalk: "Who Decides How Smart You Are?"

Learn More

https://i-asc.org/
Find a practitioner near you: https://i-asc.org/s2c-practitioner-location-map/
https://spellersthemovie.com/
Underestimated: An Autism Miracle by J.B Handley and Jamison Handley
Ido in Autismland: Climbing Out of Autism’s Silent Prison by Ido Kedar