43 دیدگاه برای “Non-verbal girl with Autism speaks through her computer 20/20 ABC News”

  5. As an autistic person who sees a lot of misinformation about about autism, I wanted to write a short description of not only what autism is but what it is like to have it. This is based off of my own experiences as well as other autistic people I have talked to.

    Autism is a different way the brain can be "wired". Some observations may lead an outside observer to think one way, but without the rest of the context it can be very misleading. People with autism take in more information from their surroundings. While doing some activity the neurotypical person (not autistic) may take some time to process said activity and some of their surroundings, an autistic person takes in everything around them that is going on while doing an activity. Take eating lunch in cafeteria for example; while sitting with their friends a neurotypical person will be eating food, talking with their friends, and listening to what they are saying while an autistic person will be doing the same while taking in every sound difference in their friends voice, eye movement, body language, and doing all of these things with anything they also see and hear. Because of that a delay in time to respond may occur as they are taking in and processing more information before they can respond.

    A lot of autistic people also have Sensory Processing Disorder, which is a disorder that manifest itself in such a way that the individual with it processes their senses either more dramatically or less. Let’s use the cafeteria example again: the autistic may be hearing every noise and conversation at once in that room, and while the lights may be fine for some people, they may be so bright for an autistic person it is physically painful. This can get overwhelming as all of this stimulus can be too much.

    Stimulus is any information gathered by any of your 7 primary senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste, proprioceptive (sense of where you are in space and movement), and vestibular (sense of balance). While these are external stimuli, internal stimuli can affect an autistic person in the same way; internal stimulus being things such as stress or anxiety to name a few. It is important to let an autistic person know how they live and process information is normal and fine, there is nothing wrong with them. They are perfectly normal people, just with a nerotype that isn't typical.

    Too much stimulus can cause a meltdown sometimes, or a shutdown. A shutdown is straightforward as they just shutdown like a computer and need to rebute away from all that stimulus. A meltdown is when the autistic person goes into a fight or flight response, where they will act accordingly as does anyone when their subconscious feels threatened. Keep in mind, too much stimulus is painful, and can be drastically so. You could say that a shutdown is when the fight or flight response goes so extreme they freeze. To combat all of this stimulus an autistic person needs to do one of two things, and may sometimes need help doing them: 1.) Remove the negative stimulus, say like going somewhere darker or quieter 2.) Stim. Stimming can be with any of the 7 primary senses as it replaces bad information, or stimulus, with good. This may be repeating some sound, rocking back or forth, touching some textured object, or hand flapping. These are just a tiny few examples of stimming.

    Stimming is good stimulus, so an autistic person may stim sometimes just because it feels good to do so with no other reason or maybe to express themselves as is natural and feels good to them. Sometimes when an autistic person has too much negative stimulus they may become nonverbal, or in other words may not be able to talk or use their words. Sometimes they may still be able to make sounds, write, or communicate in some other alternative fashion. Some autistic people take in more stimulus than other autistic people, and can be prone to experiencing more meltdowns and being nonverbal. Nonverbal occurs when the mind and body has to divert resources to dealing with other tasks. An autistic person may normally not be nonverbal but become so during a meltdown or when overwhelmed. Sometimes instead of being nonverbal, there might be a stutter instead.

    An autistic person has a certain amount of “spoons” they have for every day. Spoons are the resources (mentally, emotionally, physically) you can use to do some task. Some days you may have more spoons, and other days you may feel like you have none. Getting up out of bed cost spoons, dressing oneself cost spoons, brushing your teeth, showering, eating breakfast, going to work, going to class, anything you do cost some amount of spoons; with little resources of spoons available, you may only be able to accomplish only a few tasks, and that is perfectly okay. Sometimes a task can cost a lot of spoons, and sometimes the same task may cost more spoons than other times.

    Sometimes looking at a person's face or communicating with someone can be difficult. Communication is like a dance, and can be very difficult to follow. There are 3 ways of communication: what is said, how it is said, and body language. A person's face goes through a lot of changes over a short period of time to reflect how they are feeling, and looking at a person while talking can take a lot of spoons at time. It can be very overwhelming to try to pick up on a lot of cues people have in any form of communication. A lot of times an autistic person may only focus on one form of communication, if any, to be able to communicate. Communication in of itself (talking, listening, changes in subject) yet alone looking at some, taking in all the noise, and light, among some many things happening at once can be too much. If things feel that way, that everything is overwhelming, it is okay to remove yourself from that situation or choose not to be there in the first place. There is nothing wrong in taking care of yourself.

  12. Hi guys this is Lola this is the most Inspirational thing I have ever seen I am crying right now my brother is very very highly autistic and seeing this gave me hope my brother is so bad he needs to go to a different school witch is a school he needs ti sleep at so if you ever see someone like Carly don’t. Judge straight away give a chance plzz like to stand up for atisun awarness

  15. I don't understand how they have pain in their bodies is it part of the autism are they in pain or do is just all in their heads? If you have a child with autism a service dog is always an option if it doesn't help it doesn't hurt either

  20. I just saw Carly’s appearance on Stephen Colbert then watched a few episodes of her YouTube talk show and then just now watched this and I’ll be damned if this is not the most amazing story ever.

  25. It was externally heart warming on the last day of school before winter break a severe autistic kid who can’t talk tried to say hello to me the best he can they all were. I say hi to them everyday and give them high fives every day, ask their name, and ask how they are doing. My school is on a campus so that school is right next door to my school I am 17 years old and I have highly functioning autism so this is something I won’t forget. 😃

  27. you're amazing Carly. I still share your video to help others know what really goes on inside an autistic body. I also have autism, but am considered high functioning. I consider you to be brilliant and inspiring <3

  33. I'm so glad this is getting positive media attention. Back in 2004 or so when I was working on my degree in psychology, I brought a tape of a show like this that talked about a mother who had realized her autistic son could communicate a little by using the keyboard, and the professors dismissed it as parental bias or the parent was just seeking unwarranted fame and attention. The academic world demeans parents a lot more than I ever thought before I entered college and then the mental health profession. I'm so glad to see parents and children getting the respect and attention they deserve.

  38. this gave me a new perspective on autism just by looking at the first couple of seconds

    going to be honest, I have gained a discomfort around people with certain levels of autism (not the low-amount/high-functioning type who appear to have no odd behaviors, the middle-to-lower functioning or the ones where something's a little too obvious) due to some of the things they have done to me, and some of the things that I've seen them do

    but this gives me new insight on maybe WHY some of that behavior was the way it was… for other behaviors, I don't know if that was the autism or if it was the kid's own shitty behavior mixed with the autism. (Once an autistic kid touched my ass and held his hands there… what the fuck? There's nothing you can tell me that can make me think it was just the autism there. Then another one hit me in the head with a lunch tray… and so on…)

  42. I am so impressed with not only Carly, but with her parents. I work with special needs students and I've seen some awesome parents. But I've seen some horrible ones too….

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