Does She Talk?
The thing about the term "nonverbal" - it isn't always accurate. Technically, it's a terrible label. I always get a little, how should I say this, perturbed when someone calls Ivey 'nonverbal'. You see, this terminology leads others to assume Ivey can’t communicate. Oh, she communicates. Quite well I might add. My question is it Ivey who is limited because she doesn't speak verbal sentences, or is it the rest of us who are limited because we only pay attention to words spoken verbally? And, nonverbal always makes me think more along the lines of mute, but if you have hung out with Ivey for any short period of time, she is anything but mute. Remember there was a time when I could apply the humivent on her trach as an on/off switch. This came in handy in church. Well, that was until she figured out how to use her finger to cover the hole... years since decannulation it's been game on. Literally. ...