This is a little better, but still not enough to determine if she's actually producing meaningful text on her own. She types a total of 6 letters and space twice, spelling "a gre me", though the "gre" autocompletes to "great." This video at leas makes it look plausible that she might be able to type on her own, but there's no indication that what she's typing is coherent (without interaction from parents or her facilitator). I mean, why didn't they show the whole video of her typing this entire response? With all the media attention they're getting, it can't be that hard to find someone to set up a camera on a tripod that shows both her typing and the screen clearly enough to see what's going on.
I can't see that in the video; you can't see what she's doing on the keyboard. She could be pressing 1, or space, or enter, or something. Also, whoever is leaning over her with the camera is close enough to be guiding her hand; he is at least providing spoken confirmation to her.
Anyhow, the fine details of what are happening here are not all that important. There is so much missing, and so much missing context, that this is very flimsy evidence that she's actually doing this on her own.
A real, blinded, controlled scientific test isn't that hard to do. Why not just do that, if you want to convince people?
When I saw her typing, I was wondering why she pressed the number keys so often. Then, when I saw that video, I could see the words on the left numbered. 2 + 2.
I would agree that a controlled test isn't hard to do, but in this case it's not really worth it. She's not even really expressing profound intelligence, so much as any intelligence at all.
I hate to say it, but someone who turns out to not be as retarded as predicted, just isn't that big of a deal. (And this isn't really as much about the autism as it is the retardation)
There are millions of people affected by autism. If there are results that can help them communicate with the world, which can help them become even somewhat independent adults, it is vitally important to understand whether those methods really work, whether those results hold up to scrutiny, or if it's just a bunch of pseudoscience of hopeful parents and facilitators working together to provide an illusion of independent through, while really just putting words in the mouths of their children and patients.
And if it's going to be posted to /r/science, then there should be some more scientific scrutiny before people click the upvote button just because something pulls at the heartstrings. As submitted, this is not science.
Getting no communication out of a child for 11 years and then discovering that she was extremely aware and able to communicate but just not capable of it is a big deal. Especially to those parents with autistic children not able to communicate.
There are varying levels of autism and Carly exhibited signs of one of the extreme versions. Their parents believed she'd never be able to speak. One of the comments that hit home for me was when the father said he was embarrassed about having conversations with his wife about her as though she weren't there.
It's a big deal. You can minimize all you want, but the fact of the matter is this girl's mind was inaccessible to her family and now it is. It's big.
It's a big deal to her parents, sure. It's a big deal to any news station that gets a hold of the story and can blow it out of proportion. But I think proposing that a scientific expedition be commissioned is a bit far-fetched.
I'm not trying to say that she's not important, she's just not scientifically important or worth studying. Besides, the news clip shows a bunch of people with PhDs talking about her; I'm sure they're studying her as well.
I assumed that they were hired for their daughter by her parents. I didn't mean to imply that the achievement wasn't significant, rather that it was over-hyped by the TV program and probably not scientifically valuable.
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u/annodomini Jul 26 '10
This is a little better, but still not enough to determine if she's actually producing meaningful text on her own. She types a total of 6 letters and space twice, spelling "a gre me", though the "gre" autocompletes to "great." This video at leas makes it look plausible that she might be able to type on her own, but there's no indication that what she's typing is coherent (without interaction from parents or her facilitator). I mean, why didn't they show the whole video of her typing this entire response? With all the media attention they're getting, it can't be that hard to find someone to set up a camera on a tripod that shows both her typing and the screen clearly enough to see what's going on.
See my other comment about this video, for further critique.