Working with people who have aphasia and autism — people who live in a world not dominated by language — taught me to pay more attention to things other than words.  One of the hardest things to do is communicate with a person who has a type of aphasia we call “Wernicke’s aphasia” where the words make no sense at all.  When you first encounter a person who has that type of aphasia . . . most people write them off as “crazy”.  Yet, if you learn to ignore the words and pay attention to the behaviour, you will recognize their intelligence.