Purposeful Communication Programme

11/10/2026

Speech or lack of it is not always a choice and therefore not a chosen behaviour.

It is also not something that can be treated with teaching a child to express their feelings (as too many schools try to do) before they can even ask for a drink.

Feelings and being able to express them are important later, but they should not be the beginning of speech or communication, as the understanding required to translate feelings into words is too complex at the early stages of speech.

Work on nouns for favourite things paired with the verbs not feelings. Eat cake - drink juice - bounce ball - read book - drive car - NOT are you feeling frustrated - are you in the angry zone !

29/09/2026

Absolutely

As a child, I was labeled “nonverbal” until I was eight years old. I also couldn’t read until I was nine. I couldn’t spell, read, or communicate what I needed in class. My apraxia affected my speech and movement throughout my body & not just my spoken speech. I didn’t yet have the words to explain why some things were so hard for me.

I still remember my second-grade teacher punching my desk.

I was trying to spell words on paper. I couldn’t make my body do what I wanted, and I didn’t understand how to spell the words. I couldn’t read yet, and I couldn’t explain what was happening or ask for help. I wanted help. I was trying to speak to him, but he became impatient. His eyes widened. Then he got angry and punched my desk.

I was a child, and I was scared. I ran.

I locked myself in the bathroom and cried for an hour. I was having an asthma attack. When my mom arrived, I wouldn’t answer the door at first. Then I heard her say, “Jordan, it’s Mom,” a few times. I ran out and hugged her leg.

My mom told my teacher she knew something had happened, even though she didn’t yet know what. He lied about it. My mom took me home, figured out what had happened, escalated the situation, filed a complaint, and contacted the state. She did what she could to make things right.

I didn’t write about this in The Boy Who Proved Them Wrong, my second children’s book about growing up nonspeaking. It was too painful to put on the page. Even in that book, there are things that happened behind the scenes. I also wrote an letter for the second book for my second-grade speech-language pathologist, who told my mom in front of me that I would never speak on my own. I never published it. It’s still in my drafts.

I look back on that day and think about how often my struggle to communicate was mistaken for defiance or noncompliance. I wasn’t choosing not to do the work. I was trying, but I didn’t yet know how to read, spell, or explain what I needed. Somehow, the lack of access was blamed on me instead of on an environment that didn’t understand or support me. People saw that I couldn’t speak and assumed I couldn’t understand or think. They were wrong.

This was never a choice. It isn’t a choice for people living with childhood apraxia of speech or apraxia that affects movement throughout the body.

I’m sharing this because children who are nonspeaking or have difficulty communicating may not be able to tell adults what happened in the way adults expect. Sometimes distress is the only way a child can show that something is wrong. Please don’t mistake silence for a lack of understanding, or difficulty communicating for defiance. Be patient. Find another way to listen.

I wish the adults around me had understood how hard I was trying. Every child deserves to feel safe, believed, and supported, even when they can’t explain what they’re going through with words.

Today, I’ve written five children’s books about my childhood growing up "nonverbal." When I was a child, I searched for myself in books. I wanted other kids to find that kind of representation, too. Now, children bring my books to the first day of class, carry them everywhere, sleep with them under their pillows, or tell me, “He’s just like me.”

That’s why I keep telling my story.

-

27/09/2026

17/09/2026

Imitation is THE key skill for all learning - being able to copy body actions like clapping, tapping table, patting head, touching nose etc; object actions like block patterns or copying toy play like putting a dog in a car, building train track and pushing trains etc; oral motor actions like sticking tongue out, opening and closing mouth, gnashing teeth and blowing out cheeks are all essential skills before any verbal imitation can happen.

Understanding how to watch and copy, knowing how to make the body make purposeful movements must be taught first and once all those skills begin to work together then the voice can be found and communication with purpose can begin to follow.

Once you can copy anything then you can learn anything.

19/08/2026

Talk, talk and talk again because a baby’s developing brain really, really needs it.

30/07/2026

And that in a nutshell is autism - not just a behaviour or non-compliance but an inflexibility of thought that defies our reasoning. It is an innately different mindset which often acts against conscious reason and influences behaviour at a far deeper subconscious level

It is our absolute duty to understand this to work with and for the mindset not the behaviour.

Ben Carter, a 14-year-old boy from Devon, England, had severe autism and was unable to speak. Since he was just two years old, Ben had only used one specific blue Tommee Tippee cup with two handles. It was the only cup he felt comfortable and safe using.

However, there was a big problem. The cup had been discontinued more than 20 years earlier, meaning it was no longer being made. As Ben's last replacement cup started becoming damaged, his family became extremely worried. Ben refused to drink from any other cup, even when his parents tried different options.

His refusal had serious effects on his health. He had already been taken to the hospital twice because he became dehydrated after refusing to drink from other cups.

With no other choice, Ben's father, Marc Carter, shared a photo of the special cup on social media. He explained that his son would rather go to the hospital than use a different cup. The post quickly spread online, with thousands of people sharing it and trying to help.

People from different countries searched their homes and sent old blue cups to Ben's family. The heartwarming search eventually reached Tommee Tippee, the company that originally created the cup.

Wanting to help Ben, the company began searching for the original mould used to make the cup. In an amazing discovery, they found the mould at their factory in China.

In December 2016, Tommee Tippee made 500 identical blue cups and gave them to Ben and his family. Marc said receiving the cups felt even better than winning the lottery.

The story touched people around the world and helped spread awareness about autism. Marc used the attention to remind others that every autistic child is different and may have their own unique needs and challenges.

16/07/2026

This is wonderful news. A simple tiny test will prevent many tragedies - well done to all those who petitioned for it and for Parliament for once doing the most sensible and right thing for all babies.

12/07/2026

I absolutely hate seeing these boards being used generically. They are everywhere stuck on walls etc to make schools look inclusive and supportive. So many SENCos and SaLTs promote them as the Holy Grail of autism communication - sadly they are rarely used to communicate properly to our children but as a tool for their compliance to make school’s life easier.

09/06/2026

I have been talking about this growing problem for many, many years. I believe it to be the next pandemic of our age - infecting and forever changing brain development of whole generations and many young parents are unaware of the damage they are unwittingly allowing. Screen use is actively promoted in schools as it makes life easy for teachers but this means that parents of young children think that early introduction of screens will help their child get ahead with technology when in fact it is doing the exact opposite.

Screen addiction is particularly prevalent in children with ASD as it entertains and satisfies without requiring interaction and that is understandably very comforting to an autistic brain. However, the constant dopamine hit from this satisfaction, further reduces the developing brain’s capacity to want/need interaction and exacerbates a myriad of communication difficulties. The device actively fosters the need for autonomy and control so naturally anxiety and frustration follow when that control is lost. There has to be a radical reduction in screen availability certainly for all children under five to prevent further deterioration in development and communication in our youngsters.