I just read your website and decided to read your blog about different words like ‘institution’ and ‘communication’. It was interesting to read because after seeing you in Burlington, you communicate quite well. In fact, I like the fact you type to communicate because I have auditory processing problems and it is easier for me to see what is said than the hear what is said. I also was thankful that you used a big font. That helped me, too. I love augmetative communication. And not only that, but if I am in a non-English speaking country, I’d be using an augmenative type system. Also, I like the fact that you have a dog and a cat and that they sleep on the bed together. Also, I like your friend with the parrot, Eagle. (Forgot her name, but remember the bird’s name.) And I loved looking at Lake Champlain. But finding out that I was looking at NY state was surprising to me. I like the fact that Burlington is a small enough town to walk in. I hope that if come to Burlington again, that I will ride the bus and ride the ferry to NY state. I don’t want to go to VT in the winter. Too much snow. How a California girl stand the winter in VT? VT is a pretty state. NJ is an ugly state, MO is a disappointment. I enjoyed Autreat. It was fun and relaxing. Like a 60s be in in the 21st Century.

Kathy Grant

I have never had anyone decide I had no mind left, but I have been described as an empty shell and as lacking a personality during times when I was obviously speaking (even if only when spoken to), writing, drawing, and interacting both verbally and non-verbally with various people. Also been described as “she sits around doing nothing and staring into space all day” when doing, again, all the abovementioned things. Even in front of the people who described me this way. I’m not sure if they just remembered (or misremembered) selectively, or if they actually couldn’t believe that I did things with purpose and direction.

There were people who believed I had failed to develop a personality, or had not adequately shown myself to have one, even though I was expressing opinions and preferences. When I expressed them more often and vocally, there were people who believed that I was actually just copying and imitating others, and repeating what they said.

I never figured out what their definition of ‘having a personality’ was, but for some of the people who described me as having none, it seemed to come down to making myself reducable to a set of of specific traits, and participating in social small talk. Personality seems to be defined as a construct of how you present yourself in interactions with others, as opposed to how you think, feel, believe, dream, perceive, etc.

Or, perhaps more accurately, if you don’t do the former in a way that’s approved of, and that other people decide qualifies as ‘real’ social interaction as opposed to repetition and imitation or reflex motor movement, the idea that you are capable of doing any of the latter (apart from basic stimulus-response reactions) is dismissed. When talking about animals, for instance, it seems to be common for people to dismiss all forms of non-verbal communication that they engage in as being just the product of “instinct,” not of conscious thought. They’re only willing to even consider the idea that an animal just might possibly be trying to deliberately communicate if they can do it in a way that at least slightly resembles human spoken language.

Al comes out with stuff (from when he was more or less considered a write off), five, six years later. I dont think there was understanding at the time, but all those things were stored until he could understand/ process that. So i hate when people say all these hurtful things in front of people because even if it is true that they dont understand right then, they might later. I dont suppose it’s any less hurtful even if it is years later.