Link to US video

[zenemu]

My feeling on it is that it is fantastic that Carly has made obvious improvements over a few years and that she is lucky to have a family willing to pay for such extensive therapy. Combined with Carly's natural development I am sure that it did help Carly improve her communications skills, which is fantastic.

 

However, I also feel that video is very "American". It is all about the feel good factor and is edited as such. Being a bit sceptical here, I can't help wonder how much the family was paid for that story, how much positive publicity (and research dollars) Carly's therapist will get from the publicity and also if Carly's parents will enter the pundit circuit for autism which combined with book sales is a huge earner in the US.

 

[call me jaded]

I would use the term 'schmaltz' to describe the tone of the reporting (I've worked with loads of Jewish people). It means very sentimental. Just waiting for a Jewish person to tell me that's not what it means at all, lol.

 

That and a huge advert for the therapists.

[trekster]

Not that I want to get into a debate over it but..... Playing on a PC is very different to actually typing out words and sentences perfectly first time around. I am not saying she isn't capable of doing it,she clearly is. What I am saying is she would have had to know letters and words,like Jsmum pointed out,it may have been part of her therapy,like PECS/ flashcards something!!!

 

If someone is cut of from the world(physically,like in the middle of nowhere) and couldn't talk,it would take years for them to be able to type or write simple words as they would have to be taught from scratch.This is clearly not the case here,its america after all,she would have been taught this,maybe the typing is copied but even that in a sense is a learnt behaviour by constantly watching others type.How else do we learn but by watching others?

 

Bottom line is they make it sound as though she never saw a computer in her life and never knew a single word,and they mention her therapy but dont seem to acknowledge that this could be why she can now type not that it suddenly came to her,how does that make her a genius????

 

BTW I think it is great she can now communicate with her family.

 

i had actually switched on the pc and loaded a game, it was more than playing on a pc. The point i was making is that with this non verbal autistic her parents might not have realised she was taking in how to type on the pc.

[trekster]

heehee trekster,I used to have an Acorn Electron(so guess im just as old then)lol,they werent exactly the easiest things to load&

my tape recorder thingy always seemsed to eat the tape&make silly 'ding..pinggg.duuurr' noises lol

I thinks its ace u mastering it at 3.5 years..I couldnt at 8yrs old&i bet I couldnt even do it now lol

 

Cheers lollypopz, not many 3.5 year olds could do that with a PC.

[trekster]

NTs have social thinking, that Theory of Mind kludge. But social stuff was never meant to be thought about at all. That's where we have access to a purer form of interaction. We can sense everything. In the next century I would like Aspergers people to step up and let go of all these rigid forms, words, systems, tricks. At the moment you're all desperately trying to copy something that's fake to begin with! We have access to the real stuff, if we dare to know it.

 

Please quote from the sources you are using that disproves theory of mind. i haven't seen any literature to support that theory of mind isn't a problem for autistics.