ALL ABOUT NONSPEAKERS: REFLECTIONS ON AUTISM SPECTRUM NEWS ISSUE WITH AMY LAURENT AND JEN LEPAPE

But I think one thing we would like to do is to make sure that we're clear on some issues that have created misunderstandings regarding non-speakers and ways to support non-speakers.

So I'm going to toss out a few items, and then I'm going to have Amy and Jen respond to those items in terms of trying to get a clearer understanding and put some of the misunderstandings to rest.

So one of the big issues that's discussed is a term many people are familiar with now, and that is presuming competence.

So, Jen or Amy, you want to take the lead on that and help us understand it more clearly?

Sure.

I'd be happy to because I agree with you, Barry.

I think this is widely misunderstood.

I think it has been distorted to mean every autistic or disabled person is a hidden genius.

And to me, that's not what it means at all.

It means that every person is an expert in their own life and that they deserve being spoken to directly and not through a caregiver.

They deserve, even if they can't communicate, hearing things in age-appropriate language.

They deserve to fully participate in the measure they can in all the decisions that have their life regardless of whether they're a genius average or intellectually disabled, right? It's that presume that they have a role to play in agency in their own life.

And I do think that's really important for all of us to keep in mind.

I think there's another aspect too, Jen, that I think people need to keep in mind is when we talk about presuming competence, we're talking about presuming the ability to learn, right? When we present those opportunities and those options and that information, they might not know yet.

But we have the ability to scaffold and teach and help them because they have the ability to learn.

And that's the presumption of competence.

It's not that they know everything.

It's that if we get our support right, they can learn.

And as you said, not everyone's going to learn everything.

Right.

And somebody might be learning quantum physics and somebody else is going to be learning how to make the decision of what they want for dinner.

And those are both really important abilities to support for two different people.

Exactly.

Absolutely.

And that was actually one of the themes that came out in the.