Speech Pathologist Has Incredible Chance Encounter with Nonverbal Autistic 10-year Old on Plane

Author image for Eric Lund
Eric Lund
Sep 8, 2019 10:00 PM EDT

Rachel R. Romero is a developmental neuroscientist and speech-language pathologist who just happened to sit next to a kid with nonverbal autism on a plane. After the father warned her about his son's behavior, her job training kicked into gear and she ended up doing some communication exercises. Pretty cool and interesting chance encounter. If you want some more feel-good stuff, here are some wholesome memes to give your day a healthy pep talk.

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    language barrier - Text - Rachel R. Romeo Follow @RachelRRomeo I just had such an affirming experience On my 8hr intl flight back from a conference, I sat next to a father/son. In broken English, the father began to apologize/warn me that his 10 yr-old son had severe nonverbal autism, and that this would like be a difficult journey. 1/
    via RachelRRomeo
  • 02
    language barrier - Text - Rachel R. Romeo Follow @RachelRRomeo I told him not to worry, I was a speech- language pathologist with lots of experience with minimally verbal kiddos. Challenging behaviors began even before take off: screaming, hitting me, and grabbing for my things. The father repeatedly apologized, but did little else 2/
    via RachelRRomeo
  • 03
    language barrier - Text - Rachel R. Romeo Follow @RachelRRomeo I asked him how his son preferred to communicate. He didn't seem to understand. Perhaps this was a language barrier, but I think instead the child had very little experience with communication therapy. I put away the talk I was working on & asked if I could try. He nodded. 3/
    via RachelRRomeo
  • 04
    language barrier - Text - Rachel R. Romeo Follow @RachelRRomeo I tried to see if he was stimulable for a communication board. I started by pulling up some standard images for basic nouns on my computer but I could tell that screens really bothered him. So I summoned my god-awful drawing skills and tried to create a (very!) low tech board. 4/
    via RachelRRomeo
  • 05
    language barrier - Text - Rachel R. Romeo Follow @RachelRRomeo And by god, it clicked. I made symbols for the things he was grabbing, for his favorite stuffed penguin, and for his dad. He took to it very quickly. I introduced way more symbols that I normally would, but hey, how often do we get an 8-hour session?! 5/
    via RachelRRomeo
  • 06
    language barrier - Text - Rachel R. Romeo Follow @RachelRRomeo By the end of the flight, he had made several requests, initiated several times, & his behaviors had reduced quite a bit. The father was astounded clearly no one had ever tried an AAC approach with him. I gave him the paper & showed him how to use it, and he nearly cried. 6/
    via RachelRRomeo
  • 07
    language barrier - Text - Rachel R. Romeo Follow @RachelRRomeo This was the human desire for communication, pure and simple. To connect with another person and share a thought. Communication is a basic human right, and I was overjoyed to help someone find it. What a privilege and a gift. 7/
    via RachelRRomeo
  • 08
    language barrier - Text - Rachel R. Romeo Follow @RachelRRomeo As I face the upcoming job cycle and the nearly endless imposter syndrome of academia, this was precisely the reminder I needed about why love studying language/communication development. It was a good day to be an #SLP! 8/8
    via RachelRRomeo

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

wholesome twitter autism interesting nice story
Scroll Down For The Next Article