SEVERE AUTISTICS-CAN YOU "NORMALLY" FUNCTION W/O S

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I've been working with a bunch of kids in a special education classroom recently, and I know of a kid who gets really smiley when you say nice things about him (never towards him, from what I can see). He won't speak, though he can communicate through his iPad.
This made me curious, so I asked around. Apparently, a lot of autistic people can understand what people mean, though they won't act upon it. Is this true? I find that so interesting, eye opening, etc. (I know that everyone is different, so one answer may be opposite of this kid.)

(I'm not trying to offend anyone, btw.)
Also, do you have any tips on helping out with kids that are autistic? I LOVE hanging out with the kids, even when they're having """"episodes"""", and I'll absorb whatever you guys can give me.

I'm curious myself because I don't know if anyone in these forums are severly autistic.

Before I learned to speak, I understood a lot of what people were talking about around me, as long as I listened and paid attention.

I remember iMother and the neighbor lady having a long conversation about all the gas explosions that they had evar heard about in their lives and all the different scenarios in which people blew themselves up, and it scared the begeebus out of me when I was around five years old, but there was no way that anyone on the outside could have been able to tell that I was listening to what they were saying, or that I understood what they were talking about, or that they had scared the begeebus out of me.

I do not have sevear autism. I have moderate autism. I can not respond always. I do understand. I was in a clas for peopel with disabilty. Most there had intelectal disability like down syndrome. the teachers woudl talk in front of me like I could not understand. then they realise I could understand. then they ague about how much I could understand. Some things I did not. but Alot I did. By the end of my years there they knew I was very smart.

talk clear and not to long sentences. and not to many at one time. do not ask questions. somtiems when peopel ask me questions I have a melt down.

Receptive speech is usually better than expressive speech in people who're nonverbal, which means they can understand more than they can express. This is straight from the DSM-IV-TR.

Most of them will probably gain adequate expressive speech by the time of adulthood though (social speech will be lacking to a severe amount, of course). This is from some textbook I read (large study on individuals with autism).

I'm not severely autistic, so I'm only speculating (and extrapolating from my own communicative difficulties) I don't think the word should be want so much as can't. There's a difference between being able to understand what someone says, and being able to respond.

I appear to have asperger's, not autism, but before I knew anything about AS, I knew something seemed "wrong" with my communication and my social skills. I began to research expressive aphasia, because I became aware that I had a lot of trouble communicating what I wanted to say, that sometimes I would just not talk, sometimes I would say the opposite of what I meant, and sometimes I would blend all the words I was trying to say into a type of gibberish. My family learned to sort of decipher what I meant, and so it wasn't really a big issue at home, but at work it became problematic. I only do this in stressful or exciting situations, so it is not as noticeable as it could be. I also have auditory processing issues, and at one point I wondered if I was hard of hearing. My hearing is fine, but sometimes I can't easily process what people are trying to say. If I read the same information, I can process it without difficulty. So anyway, the child you are working with could have any of the above issues, or some totally different ones. Speaking slowly, communicating in writing or in pictures, and respecting his decision not to speak might be helpful. Sometimes I just can't think of anything logical or pertinent to say, so I'll often say nothing, rather than engage in small talk. This doesn't go over well socially. Also, the child might just be done with communicating for the moment, and be needing some space and quiet. People with autism spectrum usually need lots of quiet time alone.

Its great that you are working with these kids, and that you seem so caring and engaged! Thanks for your hard work!

When I think about severe autism I think about people like Blind Tom. He was born a slave, but since he was blind, he couldn't work out in the fields. He stayed in the master's house. He used to hear the piano lessons his master's daughter's were given and so learned to play the piano like that. He couldn't read or write, but he played the piano like Beethoven.

There's another young kid, about 10 years old, who was found on a bus. He was lost but couldn't tell the police where his home was because he couldn't speak. Are those uniquely severe cases of severe autism or is that textbook severe autism?

Why someone would want to be on the spectrum is beyond me! I'd rather be where the normal folks are, getting drunk at normal folks parties, taking my kid to normal folks baseball games, getting stuffed with popcorn at the normal folks movie theatres.