This is Luke

Luke is a non-speaker, diagnosed at age 3.5 with Mild-to-Moderate Autism with a Global Developmental Delay (GDD). After years of therapies—speech, vision, oxygen, neuro, physio, occupational, hearing, cranio-sacral—Luke, at age 19, finally found his voice through a letterboard.  

Luke believes that he was misdiagnosed “THEY WERE SO WRONG ABOUT ME”, and he wants “TO CHANGE THAT FOR KIDS LIKE ME”.

There are 30 million nonspeakers worldwide that are still trapped in their own minds, misdiagnosed and suffering from a brain-to-body disconnect: intelligence and understanding are intact, but they cannot get their bodies to obey their minds, whether it is through body movement or speech. It is very frustrating, and they are often underestimated, and forced to learn basic skills (ABCs) for many years, yet their mind is intact and capable, just like any neurotypical. This has to change. Teachers, therapists, educational assistants, psychologists... all professionals that work with and support non/unreliable/minimal-speaking autistic individuals need to know that they are “in there” and to treat them with respect, assume they are intelligent and competent (provide them with age-appropriate educational material and talk to them at their age level). 

This website’s purpose is to create awareness about spelling on a letterboard as a method of communication.

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We need letterboards in schools! 

We need qualified practitioners who can learn how to help non-speaking autistics find their voice!

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We need professionals to get “on board” and acknowledge letterboards as a person’s respectable communication tool! 

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We need to start listening to nonspeakers, as they spell to communicate, one letter at a time!