Parents & Teachers
A little context to share alongside the books. This is background, not a diagnosis or a how-to. Every person is different, and Prax is one character, not a stand-in for everyone.
What is apraxia?
Apraxia is a difference in motor planning. The brain knows exactly what it wants the body to do, but the signal from thought to movement can be slow or unreliable. For Prax, that means speaking with his mouth does not work the way it does for most people, and small hand movements can be hard too. It is not about how much he understands. His mind is quick. Getting his body to cooperate is the hard part.
What is autism?
Autism is a different way of experiencing the world. Sounds, lights, textures, and change can feel much bigger to Prax than they might to you. Some of that is hard, like a sudden loud booth at the carnival. Some of it is wonderful, like the exact moment the ride lights come on. The books try to show both, honestly.
What is a letter board?
Prax communicates by spelling. Someone holds a board printed with the alphabet, and Prax points to letters, one at a time, to build words and sentences. This approach is often called Spelling to Communicate, or S2C. It takes real physical effort and practice. He also uses a speech tablet, which his family calls his Talker, for quick answers and noisy places. Both are real, everyday parts of how he speaks.
A note on presuming competence. The heart of these books is simple: assume Prax understands, and give him the time and tools to answer. When you are not sure, wait. The answer is usually already there, working its way from his mind to his hand.
Where to learn more
The most important voices on nonspeaking and minimally speaking life are the people living it. We encourage families and teachers to seek out books and essays written by nonspeaking and minimally speaking authors themselves. Prax is fiction, written with care, but he is not a substitute for those real, first-hand voices.
Some ideas in the series draw on research in sensory and motor integration, which explores why a skill can seem present one day and out of reach the next. We describe those ideas in our own words and do not present them as medical advice.
How this website works
You may have noticed that the buttons on this site look like little letter boards, and that the mouse pointer becomes a hand that points to them. That is on purpose. For a moment, everyone who visits gets to navigate a bit like Prax does: by pointing to letters. If it is distracting, there is an on and off switch in the bottom corner labeled "Pointer hand," and the whole site works with a keyboard and a normal cursor too.