Latte Island recently posted an extraordinary video about an autistic girl who had been unable to communicate, until one day she started typing on a computer keyboard. I tried to post a comment there but, for some reason, I couldn’t get through the word verification. I found the video very moving and informative. The family appears to be Jewish.
Thank you, Latte Island, for bringing this to our attention!
Jewamongyou's Blog 
That story was very moving. I am glad her folks kept trying with her, and I am glad they didn’t continue to conflate the autism with retardation.
I kept wondering if she would benefit from being in a super-controlled environment for part of each day, one in which every object was in its correct place and nobody spoke out of turn, and nobody spoke quickly, etc. But I know little about treatment of autism.
That reminded me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D04wb7P_v-4
Or this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA
Haha, I sort of lost track of The Onion before there were any video spots. Good idea though.
I watched Mozart and the Whale with the exquisite Radha Mitchell, who is memorable even when she’s not fighting aliens or those awful dead things from Silent Hill. I enjoyed it much more than Rain Man.
http://www.sue-rubin.org/
I’ll look into the comments thing, thanks for reporting that & linking.
This story and others like it, aside from being inspiring, refute some people’s assertion that computers and the internet are causing social isolation. Without the internet, this girl could never have a peer group, but now, her writing makes her as connected as anyone without medical problems.
Not sure why Jay posted this, but obviously as he mentions the couple are Jewish, so perhaps the point here is that Jews have extraordinary brains even when diseased.
I for one couldn’t help but thinking of the story from Brooklyn of the breeder sow who left her two un-housebroken niglets of 3 and 5 years on the sidewalk because she didn’t want them anymore. Neighbours saw her screaming “Shut the fuck up” at the turdlers all the time.
Contrast that to the touching devotion this father shows to his autistic daughter.
Sincerely,
– crimsofthetimes.com
I post things that interest me. They don’t necessarily have to do with HBD or Jews. As for “extraordinary brains”, that never even occurred to me; instead, I was impressed with the devotion of her parents – as you mention. The reason I brought up that they are Jews is that anti-semites are very quick to point out when Jews do wrong and act shamefully. So I thought it would be appropriate to draw attention to the opposite. If you read some of the comments on YouTube, you’ll see that some anti-semites hate Jews no matter what; there is no rationality behind their hatred.
I wouldn’t put too much stock in what people on youtube say. I don’t think there’s anything there but trolls. That’s where I go when I feel like causing trouble. :)
You hear about parents with autistic children who spend hours and hours every day for years and years. And then all of a sudden their children get better. And then there are other children who never improve. I’m not convinced all the time and effort is what did it. I can’t say it’s not. And I don’t know that it hurts anything to try. But I think some children just grow out of it on their own. I’ve got quite a bit of experience with asperger’s which is supposed to be a mild form of autism and some people do seem to grow out of that on their own. Sort of.
I guess it’s cliche’d to say but people are on a spectrum with that sort of thing, or a continuum, if you must. Some people don’t pass the threshold to be clinically Aspergers yet suffer in life nonetheless. This is not to say that I’m part of the “it’s okay to be an aspie” crowd by any chance.
I think a frequent thing with ‘reformed’ Asperger sorts is being able to acknowledge past instances when they behaved autistically and failed to appropriately respond to or even interpret non-verbal cues, yet still lacking those abilities reflexively, leading not only to a sad realisation of how congenital it is, but a perpetuating cycle of not knowing the appropriate behaviour/interpretation in the heat of the moment and subsequent anger and frustration when recalling the occasion. I think everyone hates their younger self to a degree, but I think it is more extreme for people on the borderline of the autistic spectrum.
Your last statements very well describe me. Sometimes I still catch myself at it!
I am borderline Autistic/severe Aspergers and get very upset when people claim to be experts on a given disorder or have the disorder themselves so they can cash in on it or use it to further their careers or political goals. It definitely is real but I hate to see it treated as the flavor of the month or used as a convenient excuse to get disability benefits.
I hate to be a wet blanket, but as touching as this story is, and it did bring tears to my eyes, I think it is a case of facilitated communication:( Sorry.
If this happened exactly as described, it would turn everything known about autism on it’s head and researchers would be eagerly investigating similar results in other patients.