Grandin’s brain has been studied, and the findings are clear: her visual output area is significantly larger than average, and her wiring is unique in ways that have shaped her life, her challenges — and her genius.

The Truth Behind the Image

Modern brain imaging, like high-definition fiber tracking, gives us a stunning insight: In many autistic individuals, the brain isn’t “quiet” or “less developed.” It’s hyperactive, just not always well coordinated.

• Visual, sensory, and pattern-recognition regions may be supercharged.

• But the long-range “highways” that connect different brain regions — especially those for speech, movement, and executive function — may be weaker or underdeveloped.

It’s like a city of brilliant neighborhoods with poor roads between them. Messages get jammed or detoured. Thoughts form, but the output — speech, action, response — gets stuck in traffic.

That’s why someone might:

• Understand everything but be unable to speak.

• Feel deeply but appear unbothered or flat.

• Know exactly what they want to do, but their body won’t comply.

This isn’t defiance. This isn’t a behavior issue. This is neurological traffic. The brain is alive with intent — the body just doesn’t always cooperate.

My Daughter’s Body Struggled — Her Mind Didn’t

This is the reality for my daughter, Devyn. She’s nonspeaking and has apraxia, a motor-planning condition that makes it incredibly hard to control her body on demand — even though she knows what she wants to say.

For years, people assumed she didn’t understand.

Then we discovered the Spellers Method, and everything changed.

Spellers Method: A Motor Workaround, Not a Cure

The Spellers Method helps nonspeaking individuals bypass unreliable motor systems using letterboards and co-regulation. It doesn’t “fix” apraxia — it works around it by retraining the body to follow intentional motor sequences.

This approach isn’t about handing someone a tool. It’s about motor coaching — like physical therapy for communication.

Think Parkinson’s patients who:

• Hum to maintain their walking rhythm

• Use a laser pointer to guide each step

Or stroke survivors who:

• Relearn how to swallow

• Rebuild motor sequences for speech

Spellers use similar principles:

• Visual anchors, motor prompts, co-regulation

• Customized setups that match the individual’s motor and sensory needs

• Progress over time as the body learns to trust new pathways

It’s rigorous. It’s real. It’s life-changing.

Other methods like S2C (Spelling to Communicate) and RPM (Rapid Prompting Method) also work for many. For Devyn, Spellers was the key that fit her lock.

The Day I Met Temple Grandin (And the Full-Circle Moments That Followed)

Years ago, when Devyn was just starting this journey, I heard Dr. Temple Grandin speak at SUNY Brockport. I brought my camera. I took a picture. I sat in awe. I was a mom searching for answers, and Temple was proof that a different brain could lead to remarkable outcomes.

Later, I got to emcee a virtual Q&A with her through a nonprofit farm I worked with. That event sparked a few personal text exchanges over the years — not because I’m anyone special, but because she is.

Most recently, I brought Devyn and my sister (also on the spectrum) to see Temple speak again — this time at SUNY Geneseo. The roles had reversed: I wasn’t just a mom looking for hope, I was a mom showing what’s possible.

Then — because life writes the best stories — my mom ran into Temple at the airport. Another moment. Another photo. Another reminder that the people who change your life don’t always disappear after they do it.

Finding Common Ground — and the Courage to Be Seen

I don’t share these stories to impress you. I share them because we all need someone to believe in us before we believe in ourselves.

Temple Grandin isn’t extraordinary in spite of her brain — she’s extraordinary because of it.

And that’s what I want the world to understand about Devyn — and so many others whose brilliant minds are trapped in bodies that don’t cooperate on cue.

They are:

• Thinking

• Feeling

• Learning

• Dreaming

They just need:

• The benefit of the doubt

• The tools to access their potential

• The motor-based supports we already give people recovering from strokes or living with Parkinson’s

When we combine presumed competence with practical support, we don’t minimize the challenge — we rise to meet it. Because everyone deserves to be heard.

The photos I share of Temple are not trophies, but instead reminders:

That shared humanity connects us.

That different isn’t less.

That hope and innovation go hand in hand.

Let’s keep building a world where we all have a voice — and where we find common ground to stand on, together.

🧡 If this resonated with you, follow along and share. Devyn’s journey — and others like hers — aren’t just stories. They’re blueprints for a more inclusive future.