Spectrum Patronum with Sammie Colmer

What does it actually mean to give a non-speaking child a voice?

In this episode, we sit down with Sammy — a special needs teacher with over a decade of experience working with autistic children and children with profound and multiple learning difficulties. Sammy is also the founder of Spectrum Patronum, an online platform and resource shop built around one core belief: every child deserves a means to communicate.

They cover a lot of ground. What's the difference between low-tech and high-tech AAC? Why are schools moving away from PECS? What are core words, and why do they matter more than the 250,000 words we never teach? And why does the NHS still gatekeep communication devices from the very children who need them most?

Sammy is refreshingly honest about the messiness of this — the overwhelm parents feel when they're handed a communication book and expected to just get on with it, the frustration of watching a child stim on the symbol for raisins while a rigid system demands he hand it over first, and the quiet, enormous wins that rarely make it onto social media.

There's also a conversation about Sammy's Let Them Have Their Voices campaign, her upcoming AAC Academy, and a parent-teacher advocacy webinar designed to help parents push back — professionally and effectively — when the system lets their child down.

If you've ever wondered where to start with communication support, or felt like you were doing it wrong, this one's for you.