What Nonverbal Does Not Mean

Two of my children are considered nonverbal. I find that there is a lot of confusion as to what that means. Some think it means the same as being mute. In this post I hope to clarify what nonverbal means by looking at what it is not.

• Nonverbal does not mean that the child is unintelligent. It is possible for a nonverbal child to have average or above average intelligence.
• Nonverbal does not mean that the child is illiterate. Our son can read books and do searches on the computer.
• Nonverbal does not mean the child is without words. Our children are nonverbal but can make basic requests with words.
• Nonverbal does not mean a child cannot speak in sentences. Our son can speak in perfect sentences but chooses not to 99% of the time.

In the end, nonverbal simply means that the person does not use spoken, conversational language as their primary means of communication.