Supplemental Resources
Whether you are already on your S2C journey, about to begin, the resources below can help enrich the life of your minimal, unreliable, or non-speaker.
Spelling Boards
Before buying your spelling boards, work with your registered practitioner to best determine the size and kind of board that will best fit your speller’s needs.
Your speller will progress to different types of boards over time. Your registered practitioner will know which boards to order after a few sessions.
Shop Letterboards and More
Great Spelling Resources
International Association for Spelling as Communication (I-ASC)
The International Association for Spelling as Communication, aka I-ASC (pronounced “I-ask”), is a global organization of individuals from the nonspeaking and neurodivergent community. We seek to make spelling and the relevant supports accessible to every person who is unable to use speech as a reliable means of communication, regardless of geography, age, socio-economic or educational status.
Communication 4 All
Communication 4 All is a non-profit that provides education, advocacy, and resources to support non, hesitant, and unreliable speakers so they can learn spelling and typing. Their website includes a free online typing academy.
SPELLERS Freedom Foundation
SPELLERS Freedom Foundation is a non-profit that provides access to, education, and advocacy for spelling for non, hesitant, and unreliable speakers through a variety of initiatives including a documentary film, spelling centers, and online connection groups.
Dr. Varish Sarathay
Dr. Varish Sarathay is a Math & Chemistry teacher, Learning Strategist and mom to a non-speaking Autistic teen with Down Syndrome - a published poet. She teaches parents of learners with disabilities (like Down Syndrome and Autism) how to help their kids learn. Not just learn, but learn an age and grade - appropriate education. To read AND understand complex literature, to do Algebra, and more ...
RPM
A key belief of RPM is that all minds are too precious to waste. All autistic people are capable of learning. Through years of working with thousands of students, Soma and her certified RPM teachers have found that students understand far more than most people assume. The problem is that the students lack the means to show what they know. RPM is no quick fix. It is a teaching method which requires commitment and regular practice in order to build the skills of purposeful pointing, movement and self-help/independence skills.
Homeschool your Nonspeaker
Your child is smart and capable but the school system is failing him or her. Homeschooling your nonspeaker might feel like the best (or only!) option. With Susan Ray’s Free Guide to Homeschooling your Nonspeaker, you can see that homeschooling doesn't need to be hard and scary!
Spell Me About It
Our L4L (Lessons 4 Learners) engage not just the Learner, but also the Practitioner, Parent, or Communication Partner. Designed for teens to adults, they are adaptable for all fluency levels.
Each lesson includes text and questions across categories (Spell/Known, Semi-Open, Prior Knowledge, Math, Open). Math questions are kept simple for practice.
We prioritize engaging text over frequent images, believing learners can retain information through listening. Lessons support structured learning, offer flexibility, foster community connection, and build practical skills. All lessons are free.
Spelling In the Media
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SPELLERS The Movie
As the film opening asks, “What if we’ve been wrong…about every single one of them?” SPELLERS answers that question, in convincing fashion, through the stories of eight nonspeakers—Aydan, Evan, Sid, Maddie, Jamie, Vince, Cade, and Elizabeth—who all found their voice through the miraculous process of using a letterboard to communicate their thoughts and feelings. As Jamie explains, “we think, feel, and learn just like everyone else.”
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Makayla's Voice
Makayla, a teenage girl, has spent her life grappling with a rare form of autism that rendered her essentially nonverbal.
However, a breakthrough came into their lives in the form of letter board therapy, a method that finally provided Makayla with the means to communicate. As her voice gradually emerges, the audience is invited into a world of wonder, poetry, and brilliance that was once hidden.
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Underestimated: An Autism Miracle (Book)
Generation Rescue’s cofounder J.B. Handley and his teenage son Jamison tell the remarkable story of Jamison’s journey to find a method of communication that allowed him to show the world that he was a brilliant, wise, generous, and complex individual who had been misunderstood and underestimated by everyone in his life.
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Underestimated (The TV Series)
"Underestimated: The Heroic Rise of Nonspeaking Spellers" takes you on a compelling exploration of courage, resilience, and triumph against adversity. Witness familiar faces alongside captivating new stories as we traverse the realms of education, healthcare, inclusion, and beyond. With expert insights from leaders in education, occupational therapy, developmental optometry and more, each episode unlocks the mysteries of spelling as communication.
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The Reason I Jump
Based on the bestselling book by Naoki Higashida, THE REASON I JUMP is an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity through the experiences of nonspeaking autistic people from around the world. The film blends Higashida’s revelatory descriptions of his autism, written when he was just 13, with intimate portraits of five remarkable young people. It opens a window into an intense and overwhelming, but often joyful, sensory universe, a rich tapestry that leads us to Naoki’s core message: not being able to speak does not mean there is nothing to say.
Spelling Programs
We’ve put together a list of some of the larger spelling programs serving the ASD community across the country. We are so inspired by them. Check them out to explore some of the resources and community they offer online and in-person.
With 2 locations, Oceanside, CA and Tampa, FL, the SPELLERS Centers are robust learning centers where nonspeakers come to learn the Spellers Method as well as participate in group lessons and social events.
CrimsonRise envisions a world where autistic people have the support they need in every sphere of life; a world where they can come together with allies to create and sustain an inclusive and enriching environment for all.
AZSA presumes competence in nonspeaking, minimally and unreliably speaking individuals, providing access to age appropriate academics with a focus on spelling methods. Where they will provide a safe and fun environment for students to build social connections. Spellers at AZSA will have a well-rounded education and the opportunities they deserve.
Where nonspeaking people are heard and valued. Teva Community is a nonprofit creating safe, supported living for nonspeaking autistic people on 35 acres of beautiful national forest, just five miles from downtown Prescott, Arizona.
At The Hirsch Academy, students bring a variety of sensory, regulation, learning, and communication differences. The scope of differences we support is broad, reflecting the diverse nature of our neurodiverse world.
Growing Kids Therapy Center provides in-person and virtual Spelling to Communicate services for families with non, minimal and hesitant speakers.
Invictus academy is a non-traditional school that presumes intellectual competence in every student and supports their motor differences and sensory needs using a multidisciplinary approach to learning, which includes providing each student with reliable communication to access not only the academic curriculum, but the community at large.