My young friend, Diego Peña, has learned to become a fighter for nonspeaking children with autism. He is in general education, and has been for a while. Each one of us who accomplishes this is kind of like an icebreaker opening potential channels for other students to follow. It isn’t easy. I share a nice article about him with an interview. Contrary to the article’s implications, you can’t just hand an iPad to a motor impaired autistic kid and magically have perfect typing. It’s a process that takes instruction, time and practice, and it doesn’t happen at three, for the most part. ‘Typing,’ isn’t defined either. To clarify, it’s one finger typing. Diego’s success is good enough on its own merit that it should be applauded for what he has done, without embellishment.
So, without embellishment, Diego is a bright ten year old who has autism and doesn’t speak verbally. He has been a successful general education student in regular classes for several years, though not since he was three. He learned to communicate by touching letters painstakingly. He has the parents and the aide and the school environment he needs to thrive and to prove himself. And this he is doing every day.