Looking at How the letterboard helps nonverbal people communicate

Flashback Mother’s Day 2017.

Havertown resident, Linda Tino, received the best possible Mother’s Day present that year. It was not a diamond bracelet nor a trip around the world, nor a million dollars in cash, tax -free. The gift she received was a billion times better: Her nonverbal Autistic son, Gregory Tino, whom at the time was 23, learned how to communicate with her and with the world for the first time ever.

“God was looking down on us that day,” said Linda Tino.

The letterboard allows the nonverbal person to spell words and create sentences either by pointing to the letters with his/her finger or by using a pointing device such as a pencil.

“The letterboard made it possible for Greg to finally express himself,” said his mother.

One of the first things he communicated was that the letterboard released him from prison. His mother remembered:

“He said, ‘I explode when my stupid body won’t do what I want it to. I may sound like I’m mad, but I’m not. I’m the happiest guy in the world.’”

She remembered crying that day after he answered the letterboard instructor’s question about whether or not he wanted to go to outer space.

“He Spelled, ‘no, my world is right here.’ Because that was something verbally that he could never say to me, it was such a sentence that could speak volumes.”

How the Letterboard is used

According to Dr. Carole Policastro of Wynnewood, who teaches people how to use the letterboard including her nonverbal Autistic 10-year-old grandson, the instructor reads a passage and then asks the nonverbal student questions. The student spells the answers by pointing.

Some nonverbal Autistic individuals cannot make their fingers point, therefore, they use aids.

“People with Autism have Apraxia where you don’t have good motor control of your body,” said Tino. “it’s almost like a victim of a stroke. You can think about what you want your body to do, but you can’t go down the right nerve pathway to make your body do it.” Tino elaborated that using the letterboard helps the user develop the gross motor muscle in their upper arms to pull to specific letters.

Organizations such as Spelling to Communicate also help letterboard users develop their motor skills. Posted on their website is the following explanation:

They teach individuals with motor challenges the purposeful motor skills necessary to point to letters to spell as an alternative means of communication The goal is to achieve synchrony between the brain and body. Skilled and rigorously trained communication partners teach purposeful motor skills using a hierarchy of verbal and gestural prompts

For more information, log onto

https://www.aalive.org/spelling-to-communicate

After Greg Tino began using the letterboard, his family saw firsthand that he was highly intelligent. They never knew that he was interested in history, World War II, and that he admired Abraham Lincoln. They also learned that he was sick of Sesame Street and Barney, and attending children’s movies.

Underestimating the letterboard user’s intelligence beforehand is quite common.

“These kids did not sit in a chair in public school and not learn anything,” said Policastro. “Nobody thought that they (the letterboard users) knew anything. They were wrong.” She witnessed these eye-opening experiences firsthand.

And Now

This past October, Greg Tino’s first book, The Autistic Mind Finally Speaks was published on Amazon.

Greg said through his mother, “Autism is an extremely misunderstood disorder. Neither Teachers, doctors, nor therapists, nor parents understand people with Autism.” He wanted to explain about Autism so that people would understand.”

To learn more about his book, log onto

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+autistic+mind+finally+speaks&i=stripbooks&crid=21VZEIYTLCG3W&sprefix=the+autistic+mind%2Cstripbooks%2C151&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-a-p_1_17