Two years ago, working with pictures and symbols on a computer keyboard, she started typing and spelling out words. The computer became her voice.
“All of a sudden these words started to pour out of her, and it was an exciting moment because we didn’t realize she had all these words,” said speech pathologist Barbara Nash. “It was one of those moments in my career that I’ll never forget.”
Then Carly began opening up, describing what it was like to have autism and why she makes odd noises or why she hits herself.
“It feels like my legs are on first and a million ants are crawling up my arms,” Carly said through the computer.
This paragraph stands out to me:
Therapists say the key lesson from Carly’s story is for families to never give up and to be ever creative in helping children with autism find their voice.
“If we had done what so many people told us to do years ago, we wouldn’t have the child we have today. We would have written her off. We would have assumed the worst. We would have never seen how she could write these things —
“If we had done…” But they didn’t. They kept on. Carly’s parents are my new heroes.
Filed under: communication, encouragements | Tagged: attitude, autism, communication, encouragements, sensory
Woo Hoo!!! That is great – and we see it happening more and more often. Whoever said that communication had to be verbal or through a pencil? Thank you for sharing!!!