Your nonverbal child can learn to communicate. If your child has learned to motor plan any of the following tasks, your child can learn to use spelling to communicate. Can your child:
Brush his teeth?
Put on any article of clothing?
Point to an object she wants?
Manipulate toys?
Navigate a screen?
If so, your child has the motor planning ability needed to learn spelled communication. Keep reading to learn more about this exciting possibility for your child.
Spell As U Go™ is a program that teaches spelling using an Orton-Gillingham based method, where your child demonstrates spelling knowledge by pointing to a letter board rather than writing out words. Learning spelling is the precursor to communicating your thoughts. The Foundations program will put your child on the path to both.
I developed the Spell As U Go program because I believe every child deserves to have a voice. No matter your child's diagnosis, his or her brain is working all the time. It is taking in information, categorizing it to make sense of it, and communicating knowledge and ideas. However, when sensory issues or motor planning gets in the way, your child cannot communicate thoughts in a meaningful way.
There are many options for communication for nonspeaking or minimally speaking children, but most have limitations. For example:
PECS and AAC devices: limited vocabulary, difficult to move beyond using it simply for requests
Sign Language: not many people know sign language so your child remains unable to connect
Behaviors and gestures: very basic means of getting a message across, sometimes in a very negative way
But there is one more option that stands out above the rest:
SPELLED COMMUNICATION
Spelled communication allows your child to say anything he or she wants in a way that others can readily understand. No more cryptic messages. No more guessing games about what your child is trying to say. No more having to interpret your child's communication efforts to others.
In order to demonstrate spelling, your child's body has to connect the dots in three areas: cognitive, motor and sensory. Open communication (the ultimate goal of spelled communication) takes place when all three fire together.
This program teaches you how to work with your child's current abilities in each area. If you are interested in more information, please fill out the form below.