Frequently Asked Questions

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We usually start seeing younger spellers around age 6, but 5 works too.  There is no age that is too old to begin spelling. If your adult child has never really purposefully communicated, you may want to give it a try 

Presuming competence means to assume an individual has the ability to think, learn and understand, and is not required to prove it to us!  It means assume the person is capable, they just need the right systems and supports in order to help them succeed.  It is important to talk to people in a normal, age appropriate way.  Speak to each individual as you would anyone of the same age.  Avoid simplified language, use full sentences and avoid baby-talk and always include nonspeakers in the conversation even if they are not contributing to the conversation.  They are listening and taking in every word.  

We recommend that you start with a certified practitioner to begin the process.  It looks a lot easier than it actually is and someone who is highly trained can get you and your child on the right path, the correct path so that eventually  with coaching and training you r child can spell and you can learn to be your child's Communictation Regulation Partner (CRP) and spell with your child.

A Communication Regulation Partner or CRP plays a critical role in the support for an individual who spells to communicate...

We have a list of certified S2C Practitioners located throughout Orlando on our website.  Click on the Find a Practitioner button on the About Us Page

There are differences but we would recommend that you check out the HALO website for Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) and the Speller's Method website as well.  Our practitioners thus far in Orlando are all S2C certified so we will defer all questions on other methods to the folks who do and promote those methods.  We do however, support all methods and welcome those spellers and families into the OLBC community.

RPM has been around since the early 2000's.  Spelling to Communicate has been around since around 2014. Speller's method was created in 2023.  These methods are used around the world by thousands of individuals as a means to communicate.  Essentially up until recently, it has been more of a grassroots movement getting some publicity in various local markets through news stories and blogs.   In 2023, with the release of Spellers the Movie, spelling has started reaching the mainstream media and the general public so we are very excited about this movie and this new found publicity so that more people who need to communicate with alternative methods finds us.

Spelling in schools is again, more of a grassroots, individual movement.  Schools have been slow to accept this methodology due to it's relative newness, as well as many of their requirements for multiple studies to allow new methodologies into schools.  We have one study on eyetracking of spellers that we often site, and it can be found on the i-asc.org website.  More studies are in the works. We believe that this method works and to wait for studies before trying it, basically just means more time for a nonspeaker to not be communicating so we are all in now.

Apps like ProLoquo2Go and TouchChat are forms of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC).  S2C is also a form of AAC.  These are all forms of communication that are helpful to our nonspeakers and unreliable speakers so we are big fans of all of it.  However, we find that the letterboards are a more robust form of communication offering unlimited opportunities to communicate using the 26 letters of the alphabet, whereas apps have a lot of choices, but they are not unlimited.  So if an individual wanted to say " The athletes on American Ninja Warrior provide an inspiring goal for armchair athletes to pursue  a life of fitness and aspire to win the competition".  Could they say that with their AAC?  They could say that on a letterboard.

Spelling to communicate progresses through a series of increasingly  complex letterboards and can eventually get to typing on a keyboard one finger at a time. This transition takes time and basically takes the coaching of gross motor to a more fine motor movement so it is a carefully coached to transition to that, but yes our spellers can get there.