ABSTRACT
Sophie laughs, showing that she likes the company of some people more than others, and the people she does enjoy she enjoys each in their different way. She wears a bib with her school uniform and it is getting wet; someone is going to come and change it, and check her posture (a strap holds her in her wheelchair). Everyone has agreed that this is better than her wearing some medical overall. ‘It’s just who she is’, the class teacher tells me. The other students interact normally with her because they know that communication is not just about speech or sight (she does not use words or see). They are learning about geology, and Sophie has some rocks to feel. She is part of the fabric of this academically successful comprehensive school in East London; among the students she is sitting alongside are future doctors, lawyers and psychologists. By any cognitive test she does not reach ‘stages’. Does she perceive herself as having developmental goals, for which her intelligence will be the crucial lever? Should she?
