Receptive Language: Presuming Competence

I’m remembering the days of early intervention when I’d listen to speech therapists place markers on a chart to indicate Reid’s language development. I took solace hearing the voice of the assessor tell me that Reid’s receptive language was significantly closer to his chronological target age than his expressive language which was tanking dreadfully.

I’ve heard, enough times to believe it now, that even our “lowest functioning” friends on the spectrum have heard it all! Too many examples of severely impacted autistics, like Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay, Sue Rubin, Carly Fleischman, and new authors, Peyton Goddard and Jeremy Sicile-Kira, are succeeding in making their voices known to assume otherwise. They understand, alright.

Presume competence. (Poster available from Disability is Natural.) And then, hope that those of us whose expressive language may be off the charts will hush up long enough to have a prayer of hearing the voice of God too!

Hearing the Voice of God

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.” (Psalm 32:8, NIV)

“God is great and powerful; no other teacher is like him.” (Job 36:22, NCV)

Pray that those with autism will hear God’s voice in their hearts, regardless of inabilities to communicate with others.

Excerpted from Children of Destiny Turning the Tide! Prayer Thrust calendar here

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Andrea Moriarty

Autism Unplugged

I consider motherhood a profession. My husband and I adopted boy-girl twins at birth which gave me full-time employment and job security. I homeschooled them for 5 years which elicited admiration, shock and pity from the neighbors mostly because by then my son had an autism diagnosis and some obvious behavior challenges.