The bigger umbrella piece to this conversation is embracing neurodivergence and not seeing it as a disability necessarily but as a difference. I think that the acceptance of neurodivergent people is essential. We need to honor all speech as a valid form of communication, whether it’s with an app, sign, or gesture.įrom an accessibility standpoint, what needs to change for nonspeaking individuals to be fully included within the community? It’s also vital to provide non-speakers enough time to get their thoughts across. If you’re working with individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities, you need to be presuming competence regardless of whether or not they’re speaking to you. There is a lot of communication that we all do that isn’t necessarily our words. They say non-verbal communication is 90% of communication, and only 3% is your words. They are designed to be simple usage devices. I think a lot of people are intimidated by the devices, but if you’ve got the level of computer skills that most people have, then you’ll be able to figure them out. What are some things the general population needs to keep in mind regarding these alternative methods of communication? Now such devices can be as small as a mobile phone. For example, it wasn’t uncommon to see a 6-year-old holding a 10+ pound AAC device when I first started. It’s been fascinating to witness the growth in the area of technology. There are also higher-tech forms of AAC, like speech-generating devices or AAC apps used on an iPad. Then there’s low technology Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), which includes things like picture symbols. Sign language is a form of non-verbal communication, and many of our students use some sign or adaptive sign. Can you provide some examples of these alternative methods of communication? It sounds like the advocacy community has been pushing for language that accurately reflects the range of ways nonspeaking individuals can communicate. There’s been additional advocacy to move away from all generalized, low/high-functioning labels and instead describe the strengths and weaknesses of each person without assigning any value judgments. These platforms have provided folks a space to debate and get issues that matter to them to the forefront. The rise of social media and personal blogs has also given a big push to this movement. Semantically speaking, the word nonverbal means without words, and there’s pushback to say that nonspeaking individuals have words, but they cannot speak them. Many advocates want to change the narrative on that. I think those in the advocacy community (and many are self-advocates) feel that the term nonverbal is stigmatized because the general population equates nonverbal to not having or receptively understanding language. Can you provide some background on the debate between ‘nonspeaking’ and ‘nonverbal’ and why some advocate for a shift? You mentioned that ‘nonspeaking’ has gained popularity throughout the past decade or so. People will sometimes use the terms non-oral, non-vocal, or minimally-speaking – there’s a spectrum of language. Nonspeaking is a newer term that slowly gained some traction in the last ten years, to a point where I see many clinicians and advocates using it. The term nonverbal has been around for a long time as a clinical way to describe a person who didn’t or doesn’t speak. Let’s start with the basics: what do we mean when we use the terms ‘nonspeaking’ and ‘nonverbal’? In this month’s ‘Ask the Expert,’ we sat down with Corrina Riggs, M.A., SLP-CCC, to discuss the debate between these two terms and why language matters. Recently, some have shifted away from the term ‘nonverbal’ in favor of ‘nonspeaking’ to describe individuals who use modalities other than speech to communicate. Language preferences are personal, especially as terminology evolves within the disability movement to accurately reflect individuals’ unique strengths and challenges. The language we use to describe ourselves and others has lasting implications.
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