ABOUT SPELLING FOR COMMUNICATION:

Over 86% of those with autism and related disorders have some degree of motor impairment, often quite severe.  In fact, motor impairment is so much a fundamental part of the syndrome, that there is a growing movement among doctors, researchers and other professionals in the field to include motor impairment in the actual descriptive definition of autism.
 
Spelling to Communicate teaches individuals with motor challenges the purposeful motor skills necessary to point to letters to spell as an alternative means of communication (AAC). The goal is to achieve synchrony between the brain and body. Skilled and rigorously trained communication partners teach purposeful motor skills using a hierarchy of verbal and gestural prompts. As motor skills improve through consistent practice, students progress from pointing to letters on letterboards, to typing on a keyboard. Accordingly, communication moves from concrete to abstract as motor skills progress.
 
Many individuals thought to be socially impaired, without language, and cognitively disabled have now been able to show that they are none of these:  they simply had no way of telling anyone. We have a large, and growing, family of spellers who are now fully conversant via spelling on letter boards and/or typing. Mouth to Hand's mission not only includes giving the gift of communication, but also, to give to our spellers educational and social opportunities to enrich their lives. 

In order to provide support to our Spellers and their families, we have formed the Mouth to Hand Parent Association, a non-profit with 501(3)(c)status.