5-year-old nonverbal can spell

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I just bumped to this comment.

https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/comments/epu5dm/my_son_is_nearly_5_years_old_and_nonverbal/

My son is nearly 5 years old and nonverbal. Although he can’t speak yet, I’ve learned recently that he’s a wonderful speller, he makes me so proud.


By 5 years old, my daughter was regularly texting me, and my son has written his first computer program in Python.

The point is, parents celebrate for things that should have happened much earlier. Some parents only come to realize that their children can communicate visual-manually (e.g. typing, writing, spelling, pointing to letters, etc.) only after their children are 10 or 11 years old (e.g. Carly Fleischmann), and they celebrate as if it were a miracle. Tears would often come to these parents when they realize their non-verbal children could communicate. But ... com'on. My daughter was spelling when she was still 1 year old.

It's always sad to see people postponing the visual-manual development of their children. Time cannot be dialed back. For putting all too much emphasis on developing speech in these children, parents don't realize how much damage they have caused in their children.

This is beautiful!

Agree completely, Jason. There's certainly more than one way to communicate, and it's not unusual for parents/teachers etc to underestimate the abilities of a child, simply because they're non-verbal. Even worse, when expectations are lowered, and children are not given the right opportunities and placed in the wrong environment.

I too was a very early speller, reading and writing from an early age. English and English Literature, I couldn't get enough of. "Bathe your babies in books" is a phrase I've long advocated. I found great solace in books after the loss of a parent at a young age. Thanks for sharing.

I knew how to read before I could speak. And to spell.

I didn’t learn to write until I was 6 years old, though.

I don't understand why the focus has to be on verbal communication, its not the only way to communicate. Does seem there is a problem of some people assume non-verbal means nothing is going on in the child's head, and they must just be an empty husk.

That's great. The kid is obviously intelligent even though he's nonverbal.