#nonspeaker

An interview with Noah Seback, a Nonspeaking autistic self advocate with apraxia, for Beyond 6 Seconds, a podcast about neurodiversity that frequently has autistic and nonspeaking guests on!

Episode description: "Noah Seback cannot speak -- however, he has a lot to say.

Noah is a nonspeaking autistic young man with apraxia, which has made it impossible for him to communicate reliably for most of his life. Then, at the age of 16, he learned how to use a letterboard to spell out the words he wanted to say -- and his entire world opened up. As Noah described it to me, "it was nirvana!"

Since Noah is nonspeaking, he is joined on this episode by his communication regulation partners, David and Nadine Seback (who are also his parents). During this episode, you’ll hear David and Nadine read Noah’s responses – which means you’ll be hearing Noah’s words through David and Nadine’s speaking voices.

During this episode, Noah shares:

How his life completely changed after learning how to communicate using a letterboard at age 16

The importance of presuming competence of nonspeaking people

How he responds to people who don’t believe that letterboard spelling is a valid method of communication

How he began to overcome and heal from his trauma

Why he started qUirk, his mentoring business, to help nonspeakers – especially those who are labeled “the worst of the worst”

What he wants parents of nonspeaking kids to know, and his advice for nonspeakers who are struggling right now

Nick Barry, a young nonspeaking advocate, writes about how the privacy and autonomy of nonspeakers is often violated by those around them, how it feels, and how to do better.

Imagine being back in fifth grade. Your mom comes to pick you up from school. “How was your day?” she asks. You think about stuff that you read. And every word the teacher said. The kids you ate lunch with. Good things you tried. The words to tell about your day are all in your head, but you can’t get them out.  Instead, an aide answers for you. “He got mad when recess ended, so he ran away.”…

Hanging out with partners, using aac, making noises to communicate like Kiku does.

Body: boddedeppa

Everyone(Kiku included) : What was that?? 😂😂😂

Think it was body trying to say Dr. Pepper but it didn't work at all. 😂😂😂

But also aphasia maybe. Getting words out, in a way that makes sense to other people and match what want to say is very hard.

But Kiku is working on it. People expect nonspeakers and spellers to be poetic, full of prose and fancy words, and everything they say/spell is eloquent and wel thought out. Kiku is not that, Kiku is crass, and often times vulgar, writing full of spelling errors and replacement words.

But people seem to really like to hear Kiku's words. So Kiku is trying. And Kiku wants to advocate for this community because it is so important to Kiku. Kiku went without reliable communication for too long not to advocate for other nonspeakers, so they don't have to go without a method of communication, no matter what it may be.

What prompted Kiku to make this post is Kiku got called a leader in he nonspeaking community, and Kiku is struggling with that a bit.

Because Kiku has never viewed self as a leader, but then Kiku realised, maybe Kiku is. Kiku advocates for this community, provides information about communication methods, and feels strongly about other nonspeakers and the people who love and care for them, and Kiku's social medias are getting bigger, more people follow Kiku every day, some of them bigger blogs/pages.

Kiku never expected people to listen to Kiku if honest, this was all for Kiku, and still is, but Kiku also shares things from other nonspeakers and shares information and its important. Kiku never expected this.

But Kiku is glad people like Kiku's content and listen because Kiku feels the thing Kiku says are important.

And Kiku will admit that Kiku is different from other nonspeakers, because Kiku can appear to have a lot of speech on a high unreliable speech day, and Kiku struggles with this a bit. But Kiku stands by calling self a nonspeaker, nonspeaking, nonverbal, minmally speaking, all the words Kiku uses.

Because speech is not Kiku's main method of communication and it most often what comes out of Kiku's mouth is not what Kiku wants to say. And Kiku couldn't communicate much until Kiku was 15, but Kiku didn't know that very well or why. But because of how Kiku grew up, thinking was verbal, Kiku struggles with imposter syndrome.

Video description:

"Zekwande Mathenjwa shares his dreams for autistic nonspeakers that he thinks could be reached within his lifetime in Africa.

Inspired by the legacy of Dr. MLK, Jr., nonspeaking student Swarit Gopalan writes powerful poetry about his mighty dreams for Nonspeakers.

History is a work in progress for MLK’s dreamsMany of the oppressed vouch by its underlying themesEssential, the trifecta of truth, peace and justiceWhat will we give to realize his dreams as isRight at the very core of every nonspeakerThere exists a truth and justice seekerWhose heart beats for the rally of the oppressedWhose soul does not rest with justice surfaced Poignant is this moment in…