Part 2 of 3 Series - Assisted Communication with Non-speakers What the Naysayers Get Wrong and The Damage They Cause, with David Kaufer
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What is the purpose of the podcast and who are the hosts?
The primary purpose of Uniquely Human the Podcast is to educate and inform. The views expressed during all episodes are solely those of the individuals involved and do not constitute educational or medical advice. Listeners should consult with professionals familiar with each individual or family for specific guidance. Uniquely Human, the podcast, is produced by Elevated Studio. Music is graciously provided by Matt Savage of Savage Records.
Hi, I'm Dr. Barry Prezant, clinical scholar, researcher, and consultant on autism and neurodiversity, and a Brooklyn boy raised in the big
city. And I'm Dave. I'm none of those things, and I grew up on a farm in Illinois. But being on the spectrum myself, I have plenty of personal insight to lend. And this is uniquely human.
The podcast, a show that illuminates and celebrates autism and neurodiversity.
Today on Uniquely Human the Podcast, we are continuing our series um under the umbrella of depathologizing autism and more specifically looking at evidence based practice. So I am thrilled to have as our guest today David Kaufer. David, welcome.
Thank you, Barry. It's um it's truly an honor and a pleasure to be here. Big fan of yours for a for a long time and um just so happy to be here.
And and let me just also add that I've been so taken by your writings um in Substack, which we're gonna talk about, but a little bit more about you first. Um David Cowford is a digital marketing strategist, autism advocate, and the host of the lighter side of the spectrum podcast. His work focuses on communication rights, motor-based communication methods, and challenging assumptions about intelligence in non-speaking individuals. He is the father of twenty year old twins. His son Stone is a non speaking autistic self advocate who communicates through spelling, while Ty is a sophomore at the University of Washington studying political science. So you have a very busy household, don't you? Very busy.
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the reasons that I thought you Not only it it's important for us to speak, but for our listeners to hear you. is in a sense you've been involved in a couple of paths and journeys and one is your family's personal journey um and also currently your role as an advocate. So please uh feel free to share some important aspects of you and your family's personal journey um and then a little bit of how you got into advocacy.
Yeah, so the family journey has been interesting because Stone was diagnosed uh on the spectrum just before his third birthday. And so we got into the early intervention work right away. We jumped into it with the um both feet, my wife and I both. You know, huge proponents of doing whatever we could, like many, many parents. Um, like I said, and his brother Ty, in the meantime, was showing great aptitude. Um, he was one of those precocious um toddlers. He was counting to a hundred. His favorite channel when he was four years old, Barry, was the weather channel. He could talk. He could talk about high pressure systems. He had all of the highway systems in the state of Washington memorized, could tell you it one of those kinds of kids, right?
So we were dealing with, you know, Ty, we're like, Oh my God, you know, like this kid's incredible. We don't know how he's so smart. But you know, we we want to do what we can to support him and uh make sure he's challenged and all that. But yet with Stone, um, he had his communication challenges, right? And We knew that he was smart. We knew that the intelligence was in there. Um and we always felt from the beginning it was just kind of locked locked in. And so the journey for him has always been How can we unlock it? Right? How can we unlock him? And you know, we were fortunately finally able to do that three and a half years ago when we came across through a friend of mine. It was kind of Very fortunate, very random, who reached out to me and
and told me about uh JB Hanley's book, underestimated Which actually I had, but I hadn't read yet. Um And just said that she she was actually family friends with them and knew that this this method had worked for for the family and that he was able to communicate.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the purpose of the podcast and who are the hosts?
0:00–12:40
2
How did David’s family discover and begin using the Spelling‑to‑Communicate method?
12:40–24:34
3
What are the core components of the RPM/Spelling‑to‑Communicate approach?
24:34–31:05
4
Why do naysayers claim assisted communication is unreliable or harmful?
31:05–39:45
5
How did the school district’s refusal lead to a legal battle over Stone’s rights?
39:45–46:45
6
What mental‑health and family impacts result from denying communication access?
46:45–49:35
7
What future changes are envisioned for evidence‑based practice and legal protections?
49:35–51:24
8
How are parents, advocates, and researchers shifting the narrative for non‑speakers?
51:24–52:58
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Uniquely Human: The Podcast
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Autism Outdoors Utah: An Innovative Nature-based Family Support Program with Damon and Tarah Bryan
ALL ABOUT NONSPEAKERS: REFLECTIONS ON AUTISM SPECTRUM NEWS ISSUE WITH AMY LAURENT AND JEN LEPAPE
Two Dads Who Connected with Uniquely Human Interview Barry
Being “Pathologically Genuine”: with Dr. Jim Coleman