Non-verbal does not always mean low functioning

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Everyone's story is not like this one, but I thought it was beautiful and wanted to share it.

http://goldenhatfoundation.org/about-us ... blog-70211

Some parents on here have asked how late can children learn to speak. This guy is learning to talk finally at age 16, after learning to read and write.

Thank you for sharing. My son is nonverbal and there are days I feel drained and worried about him. Our kids just need a chance to prove that it is all inside, that nonverbal does not mean mentally deficient ! !

The story demonstrates that the supposed labeling of autistic individuals as having an IQ less than 70 as ret*d because they can't communicate is utter crud.

Parents of non-verbal autistic kids need to avoid so called mental health experts for advice and seek their own methods.

It's just a limitation of the IQ measurement...what do you think of when you think intelligence? Then think about how you might get at that concept in a non-verbal person. Even puzzle tasks that presumably don't require verbal skill may require some instruction. Ultimately, some form of communication is required to adequately measure intelligence, and so these tests are often invalid for people with severe communication deficits. If you really want to get into the nitty gritty, there are cultural issues involved too. The WAIS, for example assumes that a person was raised in the US (certain questions pertaining to US history, and standard lessons that are taught in the US). Not being raised here puts someone at a disadvantage, speaking a dialect puts someone at a disadvantage and when you apply that to a nonverbal person, those issues are just magnified. There's not really a better way to do this, the culturally specific parts, for example, are necessary to get at "crystalized intelligence" or how much information do you retain. So they have to make an approximation of information that you should have been exposed to, and this will definitely be culturally bound.

So yes, there are many problems with the IQ test. But it's an important tool, and can't be discarded because of some special cases where it doesn't work. So I agree that it is unfortunate that it probably downgrades people's intelligence unfairly. Then again, when that IQ score is going to get you school funding for extra supports, I'm sure you'd rather the child have a low IQ, then an "invalid" test result.

completely agree that being verbal has got nothing to do with functioning,have never understood why people assume this and find it funny when am verbal have heard nurses in a hospital ward say to support staff of mine 'oh shes very high functioning, my cousin is low functioning and has no voice'.

am a late talker;only began speaking short echolalic sentances at fifteen and am still the same albeit a little better ,wasnt having SALT at the time had become verbal,am able to write much more freely in text but its still scripted, built on a echolalic memory bank,its why struggle so much with answering back forth chat as that requires non scripted answers.

am also completely non verbal for much of the day;as if have totaly lost speech and some language ;have had an EEG whilst non verbal and it showed the speech areas of the brain were abnormal.

am low functioning by original definition but regulary in previous residential centers have been overlooked by some staff when needing help because am technicaly verbal to some degree and staff automaticaly help out those who have no voice and enable their lack of independance even when theyre a lot more able than self,but am assumed to be able to do whatever it is despite it being in careplan that have got very high support and complex needs.

Thanks for posting this. My son is 10 and though he tries to speak he too is considered nonverbal. We had an IQ test administered and received the same results: mental retardation/intellectual disability but even still he seems to understand what people are saying to him, responds to requests to do things and can clue into others emotions through facial expressions and tone of voice. Some within our circle of friends and family have given up hope. They need to read this because that feeling of hopelessness is the real disability in play IMO.

There is a lovely adult member of Wrong Planet who identifies as non-verbal and is studying to become a neuroscientist. A lot of being non-verbal for her is sensory, if I recall correctly. Speech is not something she has ever been able to become comfortable with, if I recall correctly. But she is brilliant.

I think parents of non-verbal children have to look at what their unique children seem to be able to do, and forget what the tests and experts say.

I have a 14 year old son who is non-verbal. Sometimes I get the distinct impression he is a lot smarter than he would score on an IQ test, I also wonder because we have tried different kinds of communication with him and none have taken off. We use sign language, have used PECS, and typing. He doesn't do any spontaneously. He recently has started signing his name (it's only 4 letters though) but only if we tell him to. I hope some day he will learn to communicate. It's discouraging when I see him doing something and I think that's evidence that he's smart and then the experts (therapist, teacher, etc.) tell me that no that's just stimming. It's always "just stimming". We have these plastic animals and he likes to arrange them in different patterns and I was saying to his therapist that maybe the pattern means something/ maybe there's a reason he put them like that...and she was adamant that it didn't mean anything, it was just relaxing for him to arrange them. Sometimes I think the reason I see intelligence in him is because I'm his mother and I'm supposed to think he's smart even if he's not.
I've obviously heard about severely autistic people who learn to communicate in other ways, but then I think that's somebody else's kid, not mine. *sigh*

I'll bet it does mean something to him. Have you ever tried copying his pattern, trying to see if you could get some sort of "pattern-dialogue" going with him?

On arranging the toys ...

I always think of the story an adult member on this site once told, about his favorite childhood memory. He LOVED, as a child, staring at a brick wall near his grandparent's house. Why? Because he saw people in bricks, and he used to count them. He even drew a picture, to show readers how the bricks form people. And somehow he could keep each person separate enough to count them.

Not that he told anyone this when he was a child. They thought he was just lost inside his head.

We don't know what these kids see. If you think your son has a purpose or intent, he does. I 100% believe that.

If anyone else ever tells me... EVER EVER EVER tells me that my baby is "intellectually disabled", I will sock them in the face until their teeth rattle and fall off. I don't care if it would mean assault charges, I am just sick of the district and other idiots telling me that my son can't learn.

My son can learn IF those idiots could figure out how to teach him. There are days I get a glimpse of the intelligence inside him and he surprises me sometimes, but I also get the same reaction that Holland does -- "Oh, it is just a stim !"

He has this "stim" when he places his hand over his ear (same side) as if he were talking on the phone and makes sounds. He always giggles when he does this, too. For the longest time, I could understand why he did this. Then, I tried it myself and was surprised to see that I could actually hear my own voice as it sounded to others - and he probably was enjoying the echoes of his sounds vibrating inside his skull ! Yeah, it may be a stim, but I prefer to think that he just is enjoying the sound of his own voice so much that he keeps hearing it ! But, of course, his team won't have any of it and want QUIET HANDS !

He also bangs on the walls and different surfaces - that is, of course, jusf a "nuisance tactile stim". MORE "quiet hands !"

One day, some day, when my son can finally communicate, I am sure we will be surprised to learn why he really did this (and a host of other "stims") as much as he does. I refuse to believe he just does these things because he is "cognitively challenged". Let time be the judge of that, not some half-baked, bitchy, school PSYCHO-LOGIST who isn't qualified to "diagnose" my child with anything anyways. She needs to learn to tell her ugly ass from a hot seat first. IDIOT.

I know it is hard to try to get professionals who are not idiots, but since you are paying them, can't you get them to prioritize something other than the stims? Anyone (a professional, yet?) who equates stims with MR sounds woefully misinformed.

I forgot what thread it was, but another poster I believe had that done. Maybe if Emile is listening he can post what language to use that would be most effective. He would know the lingo you can use to show you know what you are talking about and so you can explain your priorities.

I rarely interfere with my son's stims. Sometimes I have to for safety, if I don't want him to spin into grocery carts or glass jars in a supermarket aisle or something, but I am not sure what the point of "quiet hands" is. Do they think "quiet hands" equates to focus? When my son was your son's age he used to play with his hands all the time. I think it helped his focus.