My interest started out with the Telepathy Tapes...and they are quite interesting, but a more practical approach to this is this topic of "communication". It wasn't that long ago that brail for the blind or sign language for the deaf was considered controversial...with skeptics actively trying to discredit it as a form of communication. Right now...we have a large population of our autism community in which they are fighting for their voice. Apraxia...common within a segment of the non-speaking population of autistics, but not limited to that, is a form of motor dysfunction that can, in some cases, be described as a mind-body disconnect. The use of letter boards and key boards for communication is the way for non-speakers to communicate. It seems so simple. Yet, we have an active community of people out there that want to delegitimize it.
There is a paradigm out there in which nearly ALL of our tests for cognition involve some form of fine motor skill...point to this, fill in the box, put these objects together, tap this on the computer...and for a lot of these children, they might not be able to do this. The conclusion..."They are not in there." "They will never be able to communicate." "They are mentally retarded"...whatever the case may be. For a parent to seek out professional help only to have the rug pulled out from under them in terms of hope. For the child trapped in silence...trapped in their body...and to seek out help and have them disregarded. It's pissing me off. Seriously. How ignorance and cognitive bias of these professionals can be so cruel.
Whether right now...you are skeptical about telepathy amongst the non-speakers...please do not be so cruel to deny the legitimacy of their communication via the letter and key boards.
There is a paradigm out there in which nearly ALL of our tests for cognition involve some form of fine motor skill...point to this, fill in the box, put these objects together, tap this on the computer...and for a lot of these children, they might not be able to do this. The conclusion..."They are not in there." "They will never be able to communicate." "They are mentally retarded"...whatever the case may be. For a parent to seek out professional help only to have the rug pulled out from under them in terms of hope. For the child trapped in silence...trapped in their body...and to seek out help and have them disregarded. It's pissing me off. Seriously. How ignorance and cognitive bias of these professionals can be so cruel.
Whether right now...you are skeptical about telepathy amongst the non-speakers...please do not be so cruel to deny the legitimacy of their communication via the letter and key boards.
