Aleser

Absolutely. I used to hear much better in childhood. For me, although I can speak quite fluently, I get very stressed and upset when I have to speak- it's difficult to do with family, it's impossible with strangers. I can speak perfectly fine alone, though- that's never been a problem.

Communicating non-verbally isn't nowhere near as stressful. Not only am I not frustrated/bothered by the speaking, I'm much more able to actually express my thoughts- people tend to assume I'm far less intelligent when I'm speaking versus signing.

Again, that becomes a source of frustration, which leads to rocking, which leads to people treating me worse... I can bypass the entire process by pretending that I am unable to speak because of my deafness.

I strongly suggest giving it a shot. For any neurodiverse 'disorder' a child has, if it leads to communication impairments, it's time to be looking at alternatives to the most obvious- communication boards, communication cards, keyboards, and of course, signing- if it can be done, it should be tried and stuck with for a while, to see if there's some sort of result. One thing to remember is that the environment where you're attempting to establish a new form of communication makes all the difference- ie, if you're in a classroom, your autistic kid might find the lighting unbearable and become very upset. If you're near a source of sound, it might be too distracting. Try moving the same method to different environments!

Eventually, if the child's intelligence allows for it, you CAN establish a working method of communication- ranging from expressing basic needs to full age-level or advanced communication. Everything needs to be tried... communication is far too essential to give up on an idea just because you're unsure.

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"Andrei, did you ever feel as if something had been promised to you in your childhood, and you look at yourself and you think 'I didn't know, then, that this is what would happen to me'-and it's strange, and funny, and a little sad?"