KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Michael McIntyre has autism. Watching him, man people might assume he isn't listening to Kelley Howe as she reads a lesson about the Japanese Cherry Blossom tree. When she asks him a question from the passage, Michael points to letters on a board, spelling out the correct answer.
It’s a method called “Spelling to Communicate.” Kelley Howe is an occupational therapist and a certified practitioner of the method. She's worked with Michael for the past year.
"Michael is what I would call an 'unreliable speaker.' He has a lot of speech, but it is very loopy or scripted," said Howe. "We started to see him break out of those loops by using the board. He can use the gross motor skills of his arm to poke rather than use those fine motor skills needed for the articulation of speech."
Howe said for people like Michael, difficulty speaking stems from a brain-body disconnect. She holds a board with the 26 letters of the alphabet and coaches him. The goal is to develop his motor skills because she said pointing is proving to be more reliable than speaking. Howe said “Spelling to Communicate” has given Michael "a voice."
"Now, I can ask you anything. What do you think about the presidential election? Now, I can ask you to make a choice about where you want to go for dinner. With 26 letters you have infinite possibilities," said Howe.
For more than two decades, Michael’s parents thought those possibilities would forever be out of reach.
"He was diagnosed with autism when he was 2. He lost some language, lost some skills, lost some connections," said Michael's father, who is also named Michael.
His mother, Jodie McIntyre, had one wish for most of her son's 26 years.
"I needed 10 minutes inside my son's head to know his thoughts, his dreams, what he wants to do, what hurts him what is going on in his head. With Spelling to Communicate, I don’t have to wish anymore. I know what he is thinking," she said.
But critics of “Spelling to Communicate” question whether it’s the voice of the person pointing, or that of the person holding the board. The American Speech, Language-Hearing Association has warned against Spelling to Communicate. The national association said it lacks scientific evidence of effectiveness. On its website, it outlines those concerns and rejects the practice.
The McIntyres said they can’t unsee what happens when Michael is in front of the letter board.
"I think to myself, 'They clearly have never held the board.' Because for me, that was it. I did not know what letters he was going to poke. I didn’t know his answers," said Jodie.
And now, the McIntyres said they do know Micheal's dreams and goals. They said he spells them out. After graduating from The Future program at the University of Tennessee in 2023, Michael now plans to take more classes at UT.