[GUITAR STRINGS]
All right.
This is a song by Jacob.
And Jacob was that our songwriting workshop last night.
He's not here today, I believe, but he's another amazing speller
that I've been working with for a long time.
And he is not strictly a non-speaker,
he's an unreliable speaker.
And again, for those of you who don't know,
this is another thing that I didn't quite
understand before I started doing this work.
But some autistic speaker folks can produce language,
they can talk, but it's not always
actually what they intend.
It's kind of like automatic speaking,
or it can be repetitive loops.
Sometimes, it's deliberate and it is what they mean,
but sometimes it's just a physical pattern
that's not consistent with what they actually
are wanting to say.
And Jacob is an unreliable speaker
in that sometimes he says what he wants
and sometimes he says something, but then
needs to clarify that's not actually what I mean
and spells it out on the letter board.
But I say all of that because he's also able to sing.
And so this is a song that he recently performed,
himself, singing at a talent show.
I pre-recorded the guitar for him--
and he's working on the guitar too, actually.
But this is called Never Give Up.
And certainly he's a guy who never gives up.
This is an amazing tune.
Actually, we're going to go up here.
[GUITAR PLAYING]
(SINGING) I see the dream in my mind
I have hope for the future I said goals of every kind
And I wake up every day
I won't stop till finished I work hard with no play
And small changes bring growth
Stick to the plan
Never give up and victor you'll stand
The total despair threatens my head
I hope I can reach the dream up ahead
And for months I have strived
Only seeing small change
I want to accomplish all I've tried
Small changes bring growth
Stick to the plan
Never give up and victor you'll stand
And I want independence
Want to be my own man
I want to be married and have a family of my own
I want to learn new things
Want to have friends all around me
You want to drive by myself to places unknown
Small changes bring growth
Stick to the plan
Never give up and victor you'll stand
Never give up and victor you'll stand.
[GUITAR PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]