199 Evidence, Rage, and Relief: A Mom–Son Team on Finding Spelled Communication
Non Linear Learning - Rethinking Education for Neurodivergent LearnersShow Notes
When 8-year-old non-speaking autistic Rafael found text-based communication, he didn't just start "answering questions." He started telling the truth about his body, his anxiety, and the frustration of being misunderstood.
If you've ever looked at your non-speaking child and thought, "I know there's more in there… I just don't know how to reach it," this conversation is for you.
Today I'm joined by Daria and her 8-year-old autistic, non-speaking son Rafael, co-creators of Spelling the Tea on Autism on Substack and Instagram. After discovering text-based communication, they realized how deeply Rafael had been misunderstood - and started documenting both his words and the science that helps explain them.
Inside the episode, we talk about: Rafael's "goner mindset" before communication and what typing changed about his sense of the future.
How apraxia creates a gap between intention and movement and why that gap gets mislabeled as "low IQ," "behavior," or "non-compliance."
The concept of an "interference score" for food!
How Rafael would redesign first in schools for non-speakers.
Why regulation, communication, and learning are inseparable… and why independence in cognition does not mean independence in motor and sensory systems.
This is a humbling, practical, and very human reminder that: We can't keep separating "behavior," "sensory," and "cognitive" boxes.
Research on autism that excludes non-speakers cannot be our only compass.
And most importantly: sitting still is not a pre-requisite for real thinking or rigorous education.
You can find Daria and Rafael at https://www.instagram.com/spelling_the_tea_on_autism/ and https://spellingthetea.substack.com/
You can find Dr. Vaish Sarathy at https://www.instagram.com/drvaishsarathy/ Check out her 6 foundational tips on education at https://www.drvaishsarathy.com/nonlinearlearning
More from Non Linear Learning - Rethinking Education for Neurodivergent Learners
Your child isn't choosing to melt down. By the time behavior shows up, the brain has already decided, and the thinking brain is out of the room. Dr. Lisa Riegel explains why schools most often miss this, and what to do instead.
Why spelled communication is not a guessing game:
We don't make a neurotypical kid prove they can read before we hand them a book. We just teach them to read.
You've talked to 10 therapists. Tried 20 strategies. And your child still goes from calm to crisis in 30 seconds - for reasons no-one understands. Understanding a body requires that we understand the sensory information coming in. And Dr. Dana Johnson - OT, PhD, and founder of the Spellers Center - tells us that there are not 5 but 8 senses. Dana joins Non Linear Learning for the 3rd time to talk about interoception: the eighth sense, the one almost nobody gets taught, and the one that might explain what's been happening in front of you all along. Listen along to learn: Why your child's meltdown appears so sudden
We talk a lot about what our students can't do. But something that educators have found over the years is that there is a scatter to the skills we see in our students. The wildly uneven profile that we see could actually be a blessing. Mark Talaga, counselor, speaker, and founder of the Center for Identity Potential, joins the podcast to talk about asynchronous development in gifted and twice-exceptional learners. And here's what hit me: we're working the same problem from opposite ends. Where there is a sharp strength, there is often a significant deficit, but the opposite is true as well! This conversation got under my skin in the best way. Tune in to this episode to learn: What "asynchrony" actually means in gifted and disabled learners