But then as soon as he makes noises - he grunts and - or he bounces a little bit. And if you were to just look at him, and - you wouldn't really think anything of it. So nowadays, a lot of nonspeaking people refer to themselves as nonspeaking because every human on this planet communicates nonverbally. So as he got older, the language started to change around how nonspeakers describe themselves and how people describe them. He's just communicating in a different type of way. You know, all these different things he was doing - he was - all these expressions he had, all these body movements he had - I was like, that's communication. And I'm like, but he's kind of communicating with us through his eyes, through pointing, through grabbing something and bringing it to me, through grabbing my hand and bringing me somewhere, when he laughs when I make a joke, when he cries when I'm sad. And then that's all you would hear all the time - even professionals - nonverbal, non-this. HAMMOND: So that's so interesting 'cause, back when my son was younger and because he didn't speak, everyone would say, oh, he's nonverbal. How do you explain to people - what is nonverbal communication? What does it look like? I bet some listeners aren't even sure what that means. Your book shows a family using nonverbal communication. PFEIFFER: You've just given a specific example of how your family communicates or how your - one of your sons or both of your sons communicate. And that's way cheaper and less of a headache. HAMMOND: And that is what's kind of growing in this - in our community. So when the iPad was - came out and a company called AssistiveWare created an app called Proloquo2Go, his speech therapist at the time introduced us to that. And back then, it was mostly, like, speech-dedicated devices - these 6- to $8,000 tablets that had these apps on there that - you push buttons that had pictures, and they speak for you. HAMMOND: When my son was first diagnosed, he was in speech therapy. Your book, which is beautifully illustrated, has pictures of your son using a tablet to communicate. And it's not the best thing in the world, but it does keep a lot of us safe in a lot of situations.
Try and find their eyes, you know? And you're trying to, like, tell yourself all these things that people won't hold against you. Or this is what's going to calm me down, but you're trying to tell yourself, don't do that. I need to twist them into a way that's really comfortable for me because I'm really stressed right now. It's like a war in your head that's telling you, oh, my gosh. You're concealing the things you want to say, the movements you actually want to do. PFEIFFER: When you say masking, you're talking about sort of concealing how you might want to express yourself? And I think one of the biggest things for me is that, especially - I mask. Like, literally - like, there's so much that just kind of, like, goes on. I want to say it's indescribable 'cause, you know, I got one. How would you describe the beauty of an autistic mind? And what the pediatrician wrote was that your book captures the beauty of an autistic mind. PFEIFFER: I noticed that one of the promotional blurbs for your book was written by a pediatrician. TIFFANY HAMMOND: I try to tap into a lot of who I am as well, in conjunction with who my children are and what I see in other children and how they respond to and interact with my own. Tiffany Hammond wants everyone to understand how they can embrace and accept people with autism, so she wrote a book about Aidan, called "A Day With No Words." It's a children's book, illustrated by Kate Cosgrove, and it follows Aidan through a regular day - pushing buttons to tell his mom he wants to go to the park or that he wants fries and root beer for lunch. Aidan's mom, Tiffany Hammond, has autism, too. He also uses a tablet that vocalizes words for him. He's autistic and doesn't speak, so he uses gestures and body language. Aidan Hammond is a 16-year-old who communicates with his family in unconventional ways.
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