the these children that can read things are they typing it out like on an iPad are they writing it physically how do they do it usually um so there's different forms of spelling to communicate um often there's like a a letter board right sometimes it's a stencil letter board that you poke a pencil through so you really know when you get that letter and it's really satisfying to like get get the po poke through sometimes there's like just a laminate board where you kind of point to a letter um some individuals are typing into a
spelling kind of um app on an iPad or there's different spelling like can they type AC devices yeah and then and then there's um some individuals who end up going to the quty key you know the typical keyboard that we all type with on a keyboard so so there's varying levels of ability in terms of using your body yeah using your body and and the thing I think why spelling has been so um you know it there's such a stigma on spelling and I feel so bad for individuals using spelling because they're in there and
they are communicating but people have said oh but you need these support so these can't be your words right like like for a spelling partner let's say um you have to kind of learn to be a communication partner you have to learn to um to really understand like the the mindbody disconnect and what's going on with the non-speaker in front of you and sometimes they're B hand gets lost in space so it's good to like pull the board away and like put it back in again or sometimes you have to cue them like go for
it okay get that letter because that will help with their motor planning right so those supports are critical but people will look at those supports and say oh well that mean they're not typing in independently but to me that's as wild as saying oh you need reading glasses you can't read no that's a support to help you read you can still read if if you reading classes and that's how I think of the communication there's still no influence on the words or letters being choose chosen no no no and I think one of the things
so but the the the stigma I think that really started for spelling was um facilitated communication actually this is like the first thing you asked we're full circle so for a long time there was just no hope of getting you know people who weren't verbal non-speakers out there just wasn't and then all of a sudden facilitated communication came along and it was developed I think in a in Australia or I think and but this was ideas of you you know put some pressure on someone's wrist so they can really feel where they're at in space
right like they'll be able to to to spell and it was a miracle I mean it was all over the news this was great and some of the first parents that were using facilitated Comm Comm unication started to report reporting there's telepathy involved and this was at Syracuse University in the '90s Syracuse knew about this and started kind of burying that information and and there was a lot of like kind of uh you'll be let go if you're teaching this and you're talking about this so there was kind of big cover up so this this
was new this is not new that this was going on but then um there were some claims of you know sexual assault there's awful things that happened where what was being claimed um didn't happen and so people started blaming facilitated communication oh well maybe they're pushing their hand or doing this or doing that and I think for a lot of people who trained in facilitate communication you're using your hand to put pressure so the individual knows where the body is in space but you're not pushing their hand but there's probably are some cases where that
had had happened well anyway so then it got kind of just stigmatized right it's pseudo Sciences it's not and then so spelling evolved into these forms where it was like no touch do not touch and so many of those spelling groups now um are helping individuals and the big tenant of this is you cannot touch them and um and that's that's where Spelling's at now is that you learn to communicate and there's no touch involved but but I'm I'm one of these people that thinks like whatever the individual needs to help them communicate it's okay
if if you need a little touch so you know where your arm is right or sometimes it helps you go faster if there's a little push like I think go for it you know help these individuals get out there right this touch is not guiding them toward specific letters as touch is just an affirmation just to help them to help them to help them connect yeah and it was really you know on set sometimes because every once in a while some parents like hold the board and hold it there for their child and we would
use these um like dry erase you know markers on the screen to be like is the board moving and it wasn't um I mean there just the fact that the child can read hieroglyphics is insane I I would love to see like uniform or surian in particular uh we had a uh an ancient language scholar named Wes huon and he he was explaining how a lot of these interpretations for of like the Sumerian text which is the oldest version of you know a lot of these like biblical stories in fact he was like I can't
read it he goes I've I can I can read all these different languages but this one is so different than all the others and it doesn't have anything that's like it like a lot of these other languages you can find similarities in the way they're structured the way the sentences are there's none of that with Samaran it's like this is a wacky language he's like I can't read it and he was brilliant so when you talk to a guy like that who's humble about it you but also like very well read yeah and he's like
I I don't know what's going on what do give that to the kid so interesting yeah I mean it seems like there's a lot of opportunity to really get into that with these non-verbal kids if you find one that is there more than one that has this ability to do this I mean I can only comment on the people I've met but I think of all the people that we're talking to a lot you know for the project and now the film yeah I mean it's definitely more than one I mean i' at least I
know 15 or 20 who can um who seem to know various language they haven't been taught 15 or 20hm yeah wow yeah and one of um one of the earlier um children that Dr Powell was studying this boy knew really kind of odd languages like Russian and Japanese and I think he was five or six and could just speak in different languages and knew different languages it's absolutely remarkable wow yeah and is there a like even the most out there theory about what's going on um I I mean this is the thing right there hasn't
been a lot of research around this phenomena and and I think um I can only go again off of what spellers have said I mean one thing is that they say that there's a neurology behind Lang anguage right the the current the most Baseline language is not with words words are these 3D objects that we attach these thoughts and feelings and that is the thing that they can understand which makes sense that would be what telepathy is right if you're not right using words um well that is our version of telepathy we make noise with
our mouth and then you can read my mind sort of kind kind of I mean in a clumsy way yeah but if you think of prayer right that's telepathy if people who come back from a near-death experience and they say they have these commun ations with someone you don't have a body that's telepathy right like if if a medium is talking to some or getting messages from someone who's passed like that's telepathy so it seems like the Baseline to me like all of this has proven for me that that we have a soul or you
know there's or there's at least if that word is triggering under someone that at least there's a conscious body there's a Consciousness in each of us that that doesn't need a body like and so I think the the language thing is like we've put word words over this thing and that but the the telepathy the Baseline is there no matter what and if you can understand the Baseline of what's being communicated the words don't matter does that make sense it does