ABSTRACT
The tradition in American education to assume incompetence of students who have severe communication impairments extends beyond autism, and includes those with other developmental disabilities, such as Down syndrome, Rett syndrome, Cri-Du-Chat, and others. Schools are the site where labeling most often occurs. Then, once labeled, students are routinely expected to prove that they can benefit from inclusive, academic instruction in order to be maintained in the regular class, often with supportive and specialized services. When a student has difficulties with speech, as the second author did when he first entered school, teachers cannot know what the student is thinking. This is a situation that demands a kind of compact between teacher and student to choose the most optimistic stance possible, what people have called "presuming competence", within which to effect inclusive education. As it turns out, during his earliest years of being included, Burke understood far more than he was able to express.