Autism and communication

OK, I saw this article on another thread comparing Autism to Cerebral Palsy and I'm going to have to rant a bit... I think it speaks directly to some of the insanity around working with Autism.

First, aside from some outward behaviors resulting from the common feeling of frustration (that anyone could feel for a variety of reasons), there is virtually NOTHING relating Autism to CP. Its like comparing one car that has its motor racing but can't get in gear to another care that is missing three of its tires. The problems, issues and solutions are in different universes, and to say or imply that you can address those two issues using a common approach is, IMHO, absurd!

[Question - Why does the NLC work with ASD children and teens daily but NOT a single CP client in 6 years? Answer - Because the issues are completely separate and our techniques do not offer any benefit to CP clients.

The fact is, I couldn't even get through the evaluation with a single CP client without them being upset and offended because the very approach we find incredibly effective with ASD children is simply annoying to CP children.]

So that's my first issue with the premise of the article.

My second issue with the article is "An SLP can also evaluate your child’s language abilities and develop a treatment plan to improve communication and reduce frustration—and lead to better behavior. For example, your child may benefit from training to improve eye contact, use gestures, or communicate with a picture board or speech generating device..."

Excepting the picture board idea which has some merit, the underlying presumption is that the ASD child is broken and needs a treatment plan so he can learn to communicate like and with "normal" folks.

Why is it that the ASD person is presumed to be wrong? What if we at least consider the possibility that theASD person is already communicating in his own way, perhaps even at a higher level than 'normal' folks and its even MORE FRUSTRATING to the ASD person when people try to make him communicate down to the level of normal folks?

Is that really so hard to believe? Let's take the famous Temple Grandin. I think anyone familiar with her book, "Thinking in pictures" or her movie, would be willing to consider that she had a way of understanding and even communicating with animals that was far beyond any normal person's perception or understanding.

I, myself, have had a way of intuitively understanding the perceptions and communicating with animals my entire life. Today, when I work with ASD clients, a significant portion of my communication with them is non-verbal.

Its almost a cliche that only 7% of communication is in our words. THAT MEANS 93% OF ALL HUMAN COMMUNICATION IS NON-VERBAL. So why would we send a non-verbal thinker/communicator to a SPEECH and LANGUAGE Pathologist who's entire training is to teach people to communicate verbally?

I can't be the only person in the world who sees the absurdity if not insanity of this practice.?

OK, rant over.