I love the point you made Catherine, "the belief that because a child cannot verbally speak, he/she doesn't understand is one that is unfortunately still around in the autism community." I also feel this is true in any community. I was seen by a specialist because i would not speak until I was 4 years old and they thought something was wrong, but the doctor cleared me and reassured my family that I DID in fact understood I just chose to be non-verbal. I have speculations to that, now in retrospect, but the association of being nonverbal and intelligence is still there.