Is my child a candidate?
There is no checklist that gives you a yes or no. There are patterns that are worth taking seriously — and assumptions that are worth setting aside long enough to look.
Patterns that point toward motor planning
- A history of unreliable speech that isn't well explained by hearing or oral-motor issues alone.
- Comprehension that seems to outpace expression — moments where they clearly understood something they couldn't say.
- Better performance with rhythm, music, or familiar routines than with open-ended demand.
- Inconsistent motor skill across the body, not only in speech.
- A sense — yours or a sibling's or a teacher's — that there is more going on inside than the assessments capture.
What evaluations can and can't do
Most standardized assessments require reliable motor output to measure cognition. When motor output is unreliable, the assessment is measuring the motor problem and reporting it as cognition. A low score does not rule out communication potential. It cannot.
The honest answer
The only way to know whether a particular person can learn to communicate through text is to try, carefully, with a skilled partner, over time. We will not pretend otherwise.