Well, it’s official, Gregory C Tino‘s new children’s book is out, and it’s AMAZING!

Terra Vance here. My daughter says it’s her new favorite, and she has an unruly body sometimes, too!

With Gregory’s permission, we took some illustrations from his book and made a NeuroInclusive story you can use as a companion to teach about apraxia.

For a free printable PDF, you can use this link.

86% of Autistic people have clinically significant apraxia, a movement disorder that impacts motor planning (not motor ability). Apraxia can impact a person in many ways, but for some people it can prevent speech or make speech unreliable.

Unreliable speech is not the same as mutism.

Mutism happens when a person who can speak reliably cannot always speak in front of others, and they may go years without saying a word or may only struggle when overwhelmed or in certain situations.

Unreliable speech is different. A person may be able to say words, but it’s not what they want to say. They may want to say, “Nice to meet you,” but instead they recite a movie line or yell a word they didn’t want to say, like “Hallelujah!” or “Sit down!”

People with unreliable speech who cannot use speech to fluently communicate are a part of the Nonspeaking community.

Even focusing the eyes to look in the right direction can be hard, so reading books or using AAC devices can be a struggle.

But when autistic nonspeakers do get reliable communication, they let us know what life is like for them. Which brings us to Gregory’s amazing book, The Autistic Boy in the Unruly Body.

You can get the book from Amazon, here.

NeuroClastic would love to be tagged in any posts you make about this wonderful book!