ABSTRACT
Communication handicaps can arise from a variety of sources. Sensory deficits such as deafness block speech perception. Cognitive difficulties such as aphasia and autism disrupt the ability to understand or process language. Finally, motor handicaps such as cerebral palsy prevent accurate production. While the causes of each are very different, the results are often similar. A person unable to communicate suffers serious educational and social restrictions. Mental retardation is a common misdiagnosis for all these handicaps, despite ample research that cognitive skills can develop without speech (Furth, 1966; 1971; Vernon, 1968).
