Hope is the belief in your future. Without communication, there is no hope.
By learning how to point at letters, our son Niko, who we were told would never communicate with us because he was "cognitively not present', wrote these powerful words.
Our goal is to help every nonspeaking person find their voice.
We are a non-profit organization that helps nonspeaking autistic people find their voices by learning how to point at letters and eventually type in order to communicate.
Prior to discovering this mode of communication, we were led to believe that our son Niko would never be able to communicate with us.
Discovering this method prior to Niko’s tenth birthday, changed our son and our family. We want to pay it forward for every other family like ours and change the way the world understands nonspeaking autism.
Nonspeaking does not equal unintelligent.
In fact, all standard assessments of intelligence require the subject to either speak or move parts of their body in a controlled, volitional fashion. Several studies have demonstrated these assessments are inaccurate in measuring the intelligence of most non-speaking or unreliably-speaking individuals.
There is no anatomical basis for assuming nonspeaking individuals are “non-thinking”; speech and language are processed in different parts of the brain. Assuming that an individual with impaired speech has impaired language or lacks the intelligence to produce complex communication is neither appropriate nor “evidence-based.”
None of the diagnoses most commonly associated with an inability to speak necessarily involve cognitive disability. These diagnoses include cerebral palsy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), autism, stroke, deafness, and Parkinson’s disease. It is not clear why people treat those who cannot speak as if they possess significant cognitive disabilities, but our history is replete with examples where such assumptions have been proven wrong.
There are at least 3 million nonspeaking children over the age of 5 in the U.S. alone.
We believe that pointing to freedom, or pointing at letters or typing to communicate, is as big a deal as sign language for the deaf or Braille for the blind. Before the development of sign language, people with significant hearing impairment were considered cognitively impaired and mute, and before the invention of Braille, people who were blind were considered uneducable.
Today, although there is no scientific proof to support it, it is generally assumed that about 80% of people with autism are mentally retarded. This is not true. Many children with autism who have been pronounced cognitively impaired have normal cognitive ability.
There are people out there like our son who are considered intellectually disabled an today, after learning to communicate, can type and communicate completely independently.
How You Can Help
Our story shouldn’t be unique. Our story should be what happens when a child is diagnosed with nonspeaking autism. Unfortunately, that couldn’t be farther from reality. The reality is that most non-verbal autistic people never learn to communicate.
You can help change that and be a part of a movement that can create instantaneous change in the lives of so many people. Point to Freedom is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and depends on donations from people like you in order to do the following:
1. Pay for the education of nonspeaking autistic children and individuals to learn how to point at letters and eventually type to communicate, as well as educate parents and professionals to be able to teach it.
2. Spread awareness of this mode of communication throughout the world. We are creating an online platform that teaches the pointing method through engaging video lessons and training materials. We also aim to create printed informational and training materials and hold group workshops to provide professional support from trained instructors.
3. Open a center in Los Angeles that specializes in all of the above.
All donations to Point to Freedom are tax-deductible.
Our Story
When our son Niko was born, he was the sweetest, most beautiful baby. When we discovered Niko’s autism prior to his turning 2, we went through the most traditional avenues: ABA treatment at one of the best centers in the world. Outside of ABA therapy for 40 hours a week, Niko took occupational therapy, speech therapy, floor time, neuro-feedback, music therapy, equine therapy, and that isn’t even an exhaustive list. All of those resulted in zero improvement in Niko’s communication over seven years.
Then, quite by chance, we happened upon a book called “Ido in Autismland”. This book was written by Ido Kedar, a non-speaking autistic teenager that explained his predicament in such a way that we felt like he was speaking directly to our family:
“Experts looked at my outside deficits—eye contact impairment, hand flapping and social delays- and concluded that my insides were equally impaired. They assumed I did not understand language, recognize my parents or have a thought more advanced than a toddler’s. They supposed my brain could be molded in increments by drilling me on names and basic nouns, or by telling me to jump, or sit, or touch my nose-over and over. This was the educational model I grew up with. Now, I am telling you what I couldn’t tell my experts when I was stuck in my silent prison for so many years; You were wrong.”
Because of what we learned from Ido, finally we felt a bit of hope. What if our son was like Ido? We contacted Ido’s mom, Tracy Hoberman. With Tracy’s help and guidance, we finally discovered a mode of communication that worked for our son. The same mode that had worked for Ido, a letterboard and pointing style, allowed Niko to convey his first message to us shortly after his first lesson.
Our son and many like him are imprisoned in bodies that don’t listen to their mind. Imagine being the only one who knows that you are cognitively present but having no way to communicate that to anyone.
What we have discovered in the last year is that Niko is not an anomaly. We have met many families like ours and have introduced them to this method of spelling to communicate and all of them were at different skill levels due to their motor deficits, they all demonstrated understanding and intellectual capabilities that were not discovered through any other means or therapy.
Since we made this discovery, reaching out to families like ours has become our mission. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and answer any questions you might have. We appreciate you taking the time to hear our story.
An Essay to God by Niko Osadon
I think God must be asleep on the job because the world has so much suffering. I understand human evil is a choice but I don’t understand the kind of suffering I have to face in my life.
No human gave me autism. Why did You? Were you asleep or do you not care about my suffering? I want to get better. I pray to you but you still don’t wake up. I believe you care about me so is it that I can’t get better? If so, maybe I need to forgive you for being asleep on the job.
I’m sorry if I’m being disrespectful because you are holy and I am mortal. Not my intention.
But I love you and I can’t understand this and it hurts so much to think you forgot me or fell asleep while my body was fitted to my soul.
My soul is free, but my no good body is enslaved. Is that the lesson I must learn from my suffering? Your soul is free and you have no form, so I guess you are trapped too in a way.
I need to be a very good man and stop feeling angry, and stop feeling pity for myself. I will ask for strength instead of recovery.
Reach Out
(323) 821-4529
145 North La Brea
Suite D
Los Angeles 90036
contact@pointtofreedom.com