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Don’t expect every person with autism to be like Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man – it’s a small percent who have astonishing mathematical abilities.

And don’t expect every person with autism to be like Carly – the girl in the story below – but we can still learn a lot from her story.

(It reminds me of a song we play sometimes while audiences gather before we perform “Heal Thyself” – Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind”.)

Below are my highlights – here is the source (CTV.ca) – by Angela Mulholland (from a report by CTV medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip).

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A 13-year-old named Carly is [...] demonstrating emotional skills that lay hidden for years[...].From an early age, it was clear Carly had autism. As a young girl, she would often rock back and forth for minutes on end, flail her arms and hit herself repeatedly. Equally troubling, she never gained the ability to speak.Her father, Arthur Fleishmann, says [...] “Even professionals labelled her as moderately to severely cognitively impaired.”
[...]
While Carly made progress through the therapy, speech continued to elude her.

Then, two years ago, Carly surprised everyone. Working with a computer equipped with pictures and symbols, she started typing and spelling words. At first it was just words — help, hurt, head, teeth — but soon she was assembling sentences.

She typed then as she does now — slowly using only finger — and the words she wrote stunned all who knew her.

“All of a sudden these words started to pour out of her,” says Nash-Fenton. “And it was an exciting moment because we didn’t realize she had all these words.”

[...]

Writing reveals secrets of autism

As Carly learned to write better, she began describing what it was like to have autism and why she does what she does, such as making odd noises and hitting herself.

“It feels like my legs are on fire and a million ants are crawling up my arms,” Carly has written about the urge to hit herself.

“I want to be like Taryn,” she has written of her twin sister, who does not have autism.

With her single typing finger, Carly has been able to demonstrate her emotional intelligence and witty sense of humour to a family who says they were stunned by what she revealed.

“We realized that inside was an articulate, intelligent, emotive person that we had never met. She was 10 at the time, and we just met her for the first time [...].

Through her writings, Carly has joked about her “yucky” siblings, shown that she understands their jokes and revealed a curiosity about boys — even asking when can she go on a date.

“Inside, she is a perfectly normal 13-year-old girl. She has crushes, she likes music, she wants to be treated like every other 13-year-old,” says her father.

Carly also has expressed her frustration [...].
“People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can’t talk, or I act differently than them. [...]“

Autism specialist Dr. Wendy Roberts [...] says [...] it’s rare for someone with autism to have apraxia — the inability to speak despite an understanding of language — as well as such an obvious command of written words. Roberts says it may be that Carly possesses unique abilities that make her a rare case, or it may be that her early and intensive training simply drew the skills out. “[...] there hasn’t been a really good look at kids with severe apraxia to see what could they be taught with intense teaching,” says Roberts. [...] “[We need to] develop interventions that will allow written language to develop[...].”

[...]

“Now, she tells us stories, she teases her brother. She just does it in a different way, she does it with her computer.”

Carly’s writing has progressed so far in the last two years, she’s now starting to write a book. It’s a take-off on herself and she’s already come up with the title: “Elephant Princess.”

[...]

“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 me that I don’t want to be this way but I am. So don’t be mad. Be understanding.”

• Read some of Carly’s words.

Autism specialist Dr. Wendy Roberts speaks with CTV’s Avis Favaro regarding the unique case of Carly. Carly’s father, Arthur Fleishmann speaks with CTV’s Avis Favaro. Carly at a young age, where she showed early signs of autism.

Girl’s writings opening new window on autism

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Categories: Caregiving
Tags » autism | communication | silent | unknown

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