About S2C
What is Spelling to Communicate?
Spelling to Communicate (S2C) is a method of communication for individuals who cannot rely on speech—or other communication systems—to fully share their thoughts. Through S2C, learners build the purposeful motor skills needed to point to letters and spell out their wants, needs, and ideas.
Or In Their Own Words…
What self-advocates say about S2C
Noah Seback
“Don’t get tripped up by the naysayers and why it can’t possibly be true or work. You’ve got nothing to lose. But nonspeakers have EVERYTHING to lose that they haven’t lost already.“
Get to know Noah at his website.
Sofi Ghassei
“These past 9 years have not been simple for me, but having communication is simply amazing. I am now a part-time college student, published poet, and a playwright. None of these were within reach before S2C. I also have friends and a life partner. There is nothing more important on Earth than the ability to express love. Explore Sofi’s work on her Linktree.
Things to know going into S2C:
Apraxia
Apraxia is a disconnect between the brain & the body. Individuals with Apraxia know what they want to say or do. They often cannot get their body to “listen” to what their brain is telling it to say or do.
Speech vs. Language
Speech is 100% motor—in fact it is one of the most complex motor tasks the human body performs. It requires hundreds of muscles and multiple major cranial nerves to coordinate with perfect timing — all in fractions of a second.
Language is 100% cognitive. The areas of the brain responsible for understanding and forming ideas are located in the left hemisphere and function separately from the motor systems that control speech. Nonspeakers have intact thinking, comprehension, and intelligence — even if their bodies cannot reliably produce speech.
Presuming Competence
The belief that nonspeaking, minimally speaking, and unreliably speaking individuals are capable thinkers with rich inner lives and that they:
- Understand age-appropriate concepts, can learn new information
- Can develop reliable communication
- Deserve respect and autonomy
- Should be spoken to, taught, and included as thinking individuals
Gross Motor Movement
S2C takes communication out of the fine motor of speech and puts it into the gross motor movement of the arm moving forward to point at letters on the letter board.
Practice Makes Permanent
By practicing the movement of pointing to the letters they want, Spellers increase their accuracy, endurance, and flow so that eventually they can communicate
Lessons
We use age appropriate, interesting lessons to provide opportunity for practice. We don’t ask questions to test knowledge, we ask questions to practice the motor skill of spelling
Lessons engage the brain (through content) and the body (through spelling) and therefore support regulation.
As many as 40% of people with Autism are nonspeaking – more than 30 million people worldwide.
Yet only a small fraction of nonspeakers have been taught how to communicate.
Statistics from Communication4All