Publisher's Synopsis
Thomas shares how he uses technology and writing to communicate with others and overcome the barrier of not being able to speak. Thomas is non-verbal and communicates with others through writing and sign language. Thomas shares how his therapist learned sign language to help teach him how to connect with others. He loves to write and connect with people through reading and writing. Thomas communicates with his friends through text message and on Facebook. Technology has made it so Thomas does not have to be non-verbal. He is able to connect with other people in unique ways and this has allowed him to be able to express who he is to others. Writing is an outlet for Thomas and this has allowed him to overcome a lot of barriers that he had from being non-verbal. Thomas did not communicate until he was 21 and this writing and sign language have been a huge step for him. He now tells his mom and dad that he loves them. He has overcome so much in the past few years and will share all of that with the reader in this one of a kind book. How could someone non-verbal have so much to share and say? Read this book to learn more about Thomas and how he has overcome non-verbal autism. Here is an excerpt from the book. "I remember going on field trips in Elementary School when I was allowed to go with the class. I was allowed to go with them but I had to ride on my own bus. They called it the special needs bus and students from the special needs class were not allowed to ride on the regular bus that all of the other kids were riding on. It made me mad that I could not ride with the other kids because there were girls on the other bus that I really liked but only dreamed of talking to. Those girls would have been mean to me like they were at lunch if I was allowed to ride on their bus but I did not care because I just wanted to be like them and be included. I wanted to be one of the kids no matter what and that day I set a goal to one day be like the other kids and communicate like they do. It was a difficult process for me to try and get to where I am today but I am so proud of myself and my therapist for teaching me how to write. Writing has been a remarkable outlet for me which has helped me meet many new people and it has helped me make a lot of new friends. I feel so lucky to be able to sit here and write this book to share with all of you today because without my therapy team I would not be sitting here and typing this book. I am a fast typist and that is because typing is something one of my therapist worked on with me a lot. They knew that typing and writing might be one of my only ways to be able to communicate with other people so they went above and beyond to be able to ensure that I would be able to communicate with other adults."
