"For much of his life, Mark Jones had little ability to communicate. "He could say 'I hurt,' but he couldn't tell you where he hurt," said Mark's father, Ken Jones, in a telephone interview from the family's home 16 miles south of Superior. Severely autistic, Mark displayed the symptom of the autism spectrum known as echolalia. That means he could accurately repeat what he heard but with no comprehension of the words. Mark, now 26, has gained increasing communication ability during the past three years, Ken said. On a recent family trip, he was able to pinpoint that he had a blister on his foot. He is able to order items from a menu. He is close, his dad said, to being able to serve as a lector during Mass. They might seem like small things, but for Mark they are huge, Ken said. "To see Markie where he is now is just out of this world." Ken gives all the credit to the therapy Mark has received over the past three years at the Robert F. Pierce Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic."
To read more about the Robert F. Pierce Speech-Language-Hearing clinic from the Duluth News Tribune article click here.