14 Year Old Non-Verbal Autistic Gives Speech

Wow.

I've just finished reading Ido Kedar's incredible speech over at the Autism Speaks blog (click here to read).

Ido Kedar is a fourteen year old 8th grader at his local middle school, which he attends with the with the support of an aide. Ido is non-verbal and communicates via letterboard (unassisted) or DynaWrite. He was not able to demonstrate that he understood language fluently until he was age seven, and it took several years after that to convince the school district to remove him from his remedial autism class. Since then, he's rapidly excelled.

Go on over to the Autism Speaks blog at this post to read Ivo's speech, and to understand why non-verbal doesn't mean stupid, and why impulsive action is not the same as understanding right from wrong...and so much more.

-- Janet Boyer, author of Back in Time Tarot, Tarot in Reverse (Schiffer 2012) and the Snowland Tarot (Schiffer 2013)