Non verbal intellegent advocate

Post Reply New Topic

Ido Kedar is a 21-year-old man with autism, who cannot speak (also known as nonverbal autism). He was told from a very young age that he would never be able to communicate independently.

But when he was 7 years old his mother, Tracy Kedar, says Ido communicated with her for the first time in a way she knew for sure that he understood her.

People assumed that Ido didn't know how to read or spell, but by prompting different words, it was clear that he knew more than they had thought.

Ido talked to us using his iPad, typing out words one letter at a time. It takes him about three seconds to type each letter. Due to the amount of time involved, we sent him questions in advance.

"I had no hope that my intelligence would be discovered. The system was gamed against me. If I showed intelligence, my mucked up motor system took over," he says.

Experts often treated his attempts to show intelligence as an accident, he says, which made it harder for him to believe that he could prove it. So once his mother did understand, Ido shared her joy, but had another, more complicated reaction.

"Honestly I was mad too. I had a lot of resentment inside because of my frustrating experiences being a smart kid trapped in a dumb body," he says.

Tracy says that some people remain skeptical about his ability to act independently. Even professionals who worked closely with Ido didn't believe it. However, she says she can live with the need to convince some people that he's intelligent because their reality prior to her discovery was worse.

As for Ido, being able to communicate opened a whole new world to him.

"My mom and dad found me a teacher who taught me to type independently. Then it became really hard for the experts to refute. But it took time to get to this level of proficiency," he describes.

He learned at first using a cardboard alphabet chart, moving on to a keyboard and then eventually an iPad.

Communicating has enabled me to break free, to not be as trapped by my disability, to help others and to correct scientific understanding of non-speaking autism." he says. "Communication is a basic human right."

Both mother and son now work to help people who are nonverbal make the same progress that Ido had.

In 2012, he released a book about his experiences called Ido in Autismland: Climbing Out of Autism's Silent Prison. He has a second book, this one fiction, coming out soon.

I am not Canadian but a regular school here in the states means a non special needs school.

Why bring up Canada?

It's facilitated communication.

People often confuse those two but the difference is fundamental. When a person uses AAC on their own, their authorship of the message is clear, while with FC scientifically strict tests have proven the facilitator to be the actual author of the messages. So what Ido uses is not FC but AAC and the difference is fundamental.

Does anybody have more information on Ido Kedar?

Question: "Do you think that other people, other non-verbal autistic kids and people, can learn to type like you did?"
Answer: "It is internal traps not cognitive delay"

Tell me, do you feel this is a proper response?

Feel? Proper? What do you even mean by these words? How a response could be proper and how can I feel it?
Aren't you just coming from extremely NT angle right now?