Juliet Ferguson shares her ongoing journey of overcoming non-verbal autism

When we tried it, I was amazed that I could actually hear Juliet’s thoughts for the first time.”

Jacque Ferguson

When Jacque Ferguson heard her 8-year-old daughter Juliet communicate for the first time, she was awestruck. But she didn’t hear Juliet’s words with a voice.

She understood Juliet’s thoughts by reading them.

For almost her entire life, Juliet has had no way to communicate. She was diagnosed with moderate-to-severe autism spectrum disorder when she was 18 months old. As she got older, her parents and doctors found she had very limited speech capabilities.

But through Rapid Prompting Method, Juliet has been able to express her thoughts, needs, and wants, as well as gain improved control over her body and actions, said her mother.

Proponents of RPM say it allows people with limited speech to communicate by pointing at letters on a board with the assistance of a guide. However, “it is the position of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association that use of the Rapid Prompting Method is not recommended because of prompt dependency and the lack of scientific validity,” according to the ASHA’s website.

Regardless, Mrs. Ferguson said RPM has brought her family closer together by showing that Juliet is not only intelligent, but full of personality.

“I felt personally very understood for the first time in my life,” Juliet wrote on a letterboard held by her mother.

Last year, Mrs. Ferguson found a Facebook group for mothers in Arizona with autistic children who use RPM to help their children with varying speech abilities learn. She attended one of their in-person meetings, where anyone could come and observe as well as try RPM.

“When we tried it, I was amazed that I could actually hear Juliet’s thoughts for the first time,” Mrs. Ferguson said.

With RPM, a person responds to a question or prompt by using a pencil to point at letters on a board to spell out their replies.

Mrs. Ferguson described a technique used during letterboard communication called the performance zone, which is where the teacher has the student put their hand on the letterboard where it would naturally fall to help them spell their thoughts.

Juliet started her journey with RPM through four days of lessons with Lenae Crandall, a certified RPM provider in Utah. Mrs. Ferguson and Suzie Moore, Juliet’s respite and habilitation provider, started attending RPM trainings to help Juliet continue to learn in Juliet’s hometown of Queen Creek.

“Juliet has improved with RPM in expressing her wants and needs as well as her emotions, which has made her overall demeanor calmer,” Ms. Moore said. “Pretty much every aspect of her life is improved by RPM.”

Through RPM, Mrs. Ferguson and Ms. Moore found that Juliet spelled using large vocabulary words and understood much higher levels of learning than what she was being taught in public school. She is now being homeschooled, where she can get the full attention of her teachers for the entire day.

“My favorite thing [about RPM] is how autistics finally have their beautiful voices acknowledged,” Juliet spelled. “When I grow up I want to teach autistic children all subjects.”

The validity of RPM has been contested by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. It cites the National Institute for Health Research, saying “there is no scientific evidence supporting the assertion that messages produced using RPM reflect the communication of the person with a disability.”

But Mrs. Ferguson stands by the method, saying it has been transformative for her daughter --- and her family.

“Our entire life has changed,” Mrs. Ferguson said. “It’s been about a year since she’s been learning but it feels like five… She feels more like a member of the family; we take her everywhere now.”

Editor's note: Sarah Hunt wrote the story for a class at the Arizona State University Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.