Autistic girl reveals articulate and intelligent voice through computers.
February 20th, 2008Here's some good news to cheer up your week. I was definitely pumped after reading this article from ABCNews!
Autism Breakthrough: Girl's Writings Explain Her Behavior and Feelings
Doctors Amazed by Carly Fleishman's Ability to Describe the Disorder From the Inside
By JOHN MCKENZIE
Carly Fleischman has severe autism and is unable to speak a word. But thanks to years of expensive and intensive therapy, this 13-year-old has made a remarkable breakthrough.
Two years ago, working with pictures and symbols on a computer keyboard, she started typing and spelling out words. The computer became her voice.
"All of a sudden these words started to pour out of her, and it was an exciting moment because we didn't realize she had all these words," said speech pathologist Barbara Nash. "It was one of those moments in my career that I'll never forget."
Then Carly began opening up, describing what it was like to have autism and why she makes odd noises or why she hits herself.
"It feels like my legs are on first and a million ants are crawling up my arms," Carly said through the computer.
Carly writes about her frustrations with her siblings, how she understands their jokes and asks when can she go on a date.
"We were stunned," Carly's father Arthur Fleischmann said. "We realized inside was an articulate, intelligent, emotive person that we had never met. This was unbelievable because it opened up a whole new way of looking at her." This is what Carly wants people to know about autism.
"It is hard to be autistic because no one understands me. People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can't talk or I act differently than them. I think people get scared with things that look or seem different than them." "Laypeople would have assumed she was mentally retarded or cognitively impaired. Even professionals labelled her as moderately to severely cognitively impaired. In the old days you would say mentally retarded, which means low IQ and low promise and low potential," Arthur Fleischman said.
Therapists say the key lesson from Carly's story is for families to never give up and to be ever creative in helping children with autism find their voice.
"If we had done what so many people told us to do years ago, we wouldn't have the child we have today. We would have written her off. We would have assumed the worst. We would have never seen how she could write these things, how articulate she is, how intelligent she is," the grateful father added.
"I asked Carly to come to my work to talk to speech pathologists and other therapists about autism," said Nash. "What would you like to tell them? She wrote, 'I would tell them never to give up on the children that they work with.' That kind of summed it up."
Carly had another message for people who don't understand autism.
"Autism is hard because you want to act one way, but you can't always do that. It's sad that sometimes people don't know that sometimes I can't stop myself and they get mad at me. If I could tell people one thing about autism it would be that I don't want to be this way. But I am, so don't be mad. Be understanding."
February 20th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Thanks for speaking up, Carly! I'm a caregiver at group homes for developmentally disabled adults. Over the years, I have had the privilege to serve and get to know 2 men with autism. I saw how sensitive, both physically and emotionally, they are, how they find ways to reach out, past the lack of verbal skills, to show they care. These men have awesome senses of humor. When I said privilege above, I meant it. They do make gestures that show they care about people, and it makes me feel honored that they have shown me that they care about me.
I always hate it when I see someone on tv, talking about how parents who have kids with autism are told "Your child will never say, 'I love you.'"It bothers me to hear that on tv, because the implication is, that people who have autism do not love. Just because they do not express their feelings the way most people do, does not mean they lack those feelings. I wish parents were told, "Expect your child to show you love in different ways than words."
February 20th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
This story has touched my heart and reawakened the tender feelings and compassion I have for the human race. Looking with your heart is always better than looking with your eyes.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Very touching. I thought that autistic children live in their own world and they never understand our world. This incident will be an eye opener for many people in the way they have been seeing autism.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Watch the movie House of Cards. This is about a 6 yr old that was autistic and how smart she really is. Wonderful Movie
February 21st, 2008 at 3:02 am
my son has autism he can't talk,but it seems he is talking to someone we don't know. I wish she
could tell who is he talking to.
February 21st, 2008 at 5:00 am
i have a 7 year old g-son who.s autism, but have a gift for sounds,he's also good with all types of games and can out run all of us on the track field but he can't talk. but he certainly tries i don't think he's aware that we doesn't understand him when he tries to talk. but he'l very smart in school. but he haven't found his voice yet
February 21st, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Encouraging and wonderful.
I am touched by the story of Carly.
Marianna Herro
Journalsit
February 24th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
This story is so touching. It shows what is autism from within, which means that autists are deeply inside as anyone else.
Jeannet
student with a slight form of autism
February 25th, 2008 at 2:25 am
The risks of vaccinations have been played down by the Government and parents have been fobbed off with bland reassurances." (Of Course, their most likely reassurance against side effects is that the "Patient responded poorly to treatment, so it's not the Vaccine's fault...")
And Dr Peter Mansfield, who won a case against the doctor's governing body, the General Medical Council, for refusing to give the combined controversial measles, mumps and rubella to infants, said: "This is scandalous. We're vaccinating babies when their immune systems are not ready."
Jackie Fletcher from the vaccine damage support group JABS, is also concerned. She said: "The Department of Health is failing to acknowledge the dangers of the vaccines and the damage they can cause. It claims the five-in-one is perfectly safe, but clearly it is not.
"The only person taking a risk here is the baby and parents are not being given correct information about it."
Health officials claim it is safer than the four-in-one-jab it replaced which contained the controversial preservative mercury, which has been linked with autism...
Everyday, children who would have led otherwise healthy lives are being affected by this decadent medical paradigm. Did Carly get vaccinated at a very early age?
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 am
I can relate to this story. Our son, 13 is non-verbal and also uses a device called a lightwriter to communicate. He types also and amazed us when he could type for the first time and used words and sentences and we did not realize he new the alphabet.
Our son is a great skier, have you ever tried skiing? I was wondering if you would take an email from him sometime?
Also, what is the computer program you use...we would like to check it out.
Keep up the good work....you rock!!!
Jill
March 24th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I have some questions to ask people with autism. Is there an e-mail or website that can get me to a person with autism who can help me understand my son better. He is 20 and we are having problems with life skills, bathing, cleaning apartment, dressing properly. I would love to ask someone who can communicate how to help my son do better and avoid trouble which he can get into and has.
Mom who needs help.
April 17th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Jill Haggerty's comment shows that the years of "intensive and expensive" therapy for Carly may be irrelevant to her learning to type, See also Adam Speaks video on Youtube, and links from ballastexistenz.autistics.org/
The latter website may help you Deborah Seiberling, since there is a wealth of information there - check the links and the topics