-
Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
- Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral
Is Anyone Completely Non-verbal?
- Thread starter Cutesie
- Start date
Nope, just the opposite.
There was an unusual news story I linked to in this forum about 2 years back, an 18 year old man spoke for the very first time on the way home from his grandmother's funeral. After that it didn't take much to get him talking all the time and then they found out that he spoke 13 different languages.
He had spent his whole life watching cartoons on a phone, mostly sponge bob, what they hadn't realised was that he would watch the same cartoons in as many languages as he could find.
I don't understand.
https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/l...ate-from-a-cocoon-of-silence?origin=serp_auto
It's an amazing story. He was sixteen at the time (the news article was published when he was eighteen) and had only communicated with a few gestures. According to a different article, his meltdown after the funeral was so bad that his mother said, "Help us help you", and put a paper and pen in front of him.
Charlie is a genius in math, science and languages (knowing 32 of them as of two years ago).
My 30yo ASD3 daughter is completely
She did use three words in her childhood: Hi, hot & ow. But she has never progressed past that and even lost those. Preliterate autistics are oblivious to the internet and any other interaction where literacy is an entrance requirement.
*Non-verbal means that one does not/cannot talk, but can understand language. Such can communicate through writing, keyboards, etc.
Preverbal means that person has not crossed that childhood developmental milestone, yet, which precludes said literacy.
Last edited:
Wow. That is sad. You've answered my question. I didn't know if such a condition existed.
She still wears a nighttime diaper. Many here have grown children or siblings at a similar level of development. Those numbers skyrocketed in the late 1970s. Prior to that, ASD2 & 3 only occurred in 1:10K births. (That is the same rate as naturally-occurring triplets. 
)
Those numbers never included ASD1s, even after we were discovered.
)Those numbers never included ASD1s, even after we were discovered.
Last edited:
I've known several dozen ASD1s and ASD2s, though I don't always know their classification. Every one of them speaks at least a few words.She still wears a nighttime diaper. Many here have grown children or siblings at a similar level of development. Those numbers skyrocketed in the late 1970s. Prior to that, ASD2 & 3 only occurred in 1:10K births. (That is the same rate as naturally-occurring triplets.
Generally speaking, if they require
- a legal guardian, they are ASD3;
- a conservator of estate or representative payee (but no legal guardian), they are ASD2;
- neither, they are ASD1.
Last edited:
These levels can be subjective and can seemingly change, if that's their definition. I'm not telling you anything that you don't know, but explaining (mostly to myself) how murky it all is. I can imagine that a single individual could, based on their educational and environmental history, fit into any one of the three.
Is the classification based on what the individual requires now (which might be their "floor"), or on what they are capable of attaining (their "ceiling")?
I know that I'm not making myself clear, and that there are a lot of other questions - some connected to deeply-personal issues - that I'm asking in my head but not communicating.
Oops, what I intended to write is that I've known several dozen ASD2s and ASD3s.
My description is based on what a court of law has determined. No one loses their majority rights haphazardly. That is why it falls to the court to make that determination. In my daughter's case, it would be like leaving a 1.5yo to her own devices. She would not seek out necessary resources nor the money to secure them. She is oblivious to those processes. She is happy to be here.
My ASD2 son does not have (nor require) a legal guardian, but Social Security will not pay him directly because of his cognitive deficits.
Here's my question: If you hadn't raised your son well, and given him the supports needed to learn independence, he might have required to have a legal guardian now. Is the determination by a court of law the same terms as what an autism clinician would use?
It is way more complicated than that.
We were barely able to constrain him from recklessly* hurting or killing himself or his brothers or sisters, let alone train him. The reason he did not get a guardian was because he could express his preferences.
His ASD3 sister could not express her preferences and her doctors confirmed her significant lack of development that justified her guardianship.
Neither had their status determined by "how we raised them."
*He is not mean-spirited, just dangerously impulsive. And he exhibits more executive dysfunction than she does.
Not a straight forward question. I can be very talkative, but when around people who I feel insecure around, I do not say a single word and that could go on for hours. I have tried to speak, but other ignored or not heard and I guess it is due to me squeaking out a word.
I am known and the chatterbox and "where is she?"
I am known and the chatterbox and "where is she?"
His biggest manifestation of executive dysfunction is that he does not learn from his mistakes, not even slowly. His rep payee turns over his grocery money and very little of it makes it to his table. And he is angry at the world for starving all the time but he will not connect the dots.
I think that he would do better with a guardian, but it is not my call.
I think that he would do better with a guardian, but it is not my call.
What does he do with it - lose it or spend it on other things?
That must be hard. I can empathize, because I have a "lite" version of it that is much lesss severe than yours. With me, there is confusion and guilt piled on, because it's me not wanting to speak more than an inability to do so.
