A parent discovered his nonverbal autistic son Sam can spell by touching letters, revealing thoughts that are poetic and witty, far deeper than experts said was possible. The discovery led him to write Real Words with Sam, dedicated to the misunderstood and underestimated.
Chapters
your story, Sam's story, your relationship, and how you show up for him as a father. I can only imagine what it would be like to have an autistic child, and specifically Sam's form of autism. When Sam's nonverbal and you can't even communicate, why did you write Real Words with Sam, and who is this book for?
Here's the thing. The dedication at the beginning of the book is to the misunderstood and the underestimated. I learned something that I thought was impossible. I learned how to change history. Now, I know that people change history. What are you talking about? Well, what is history, right? Our history is our our memories, our history is how we perceive our past. When I learned about spelling and through that process learned that my son, who I thought, you know, has a disability, and I learned that he didn't have a learning disorder. His whole life he's been listening, absorbing, understanding everything going on around him when we were told by the experts that he probably never progressed past a mentality of, you know, a 6-year-old or a 7-year-old. I learned that he could spell by touching, touching letters on a board like this, but he could share thoughts with us. And I learned that his thoughts are very rich, very deep. In fact, much more mature than people his age. The wisdom that he shares, the wit he shares, is oftentimes poetic, oftentimes very rhythmic. The words he chooses is crazy. When I learned all that, it changed everything I remember about every experience that I've had with him. And it didn't just change how I saw Sam and my history, Hal, it really changed how I see everybody.
