"Don't teach my child sign language. No need for pictures or symbols either. Just teach her to speak!"
Parent-Teacher Meetings came by twice a year at the Centre I worked in. There was one right after the IEPs for the year were made and another towards the close of the year. When most parents were happy with their child's progress and eager to know what the next steps were, there was one particular couple that had something very different to say. 'S' was a little girl, 5 years of age. She was on the Autism spectrum and was non-verbal. When she first joined the Centre, S had poor eye contact, a decreased attention span, poor recognition of common objects, and poor comprehension of facial expressions & environmental cues. By the end of one academic year, S was by then able to identify her school bag, could point to the picture of a glass to ask for water, and signal for 'toilet'. She would recognize the names of the most common things she carried in her snack box, like banana and sandwich. S could also eye-point to the identify her teacher and the class helper, whe