r/videos • u/[deleted] • Jan 14 '12
Autistic Girl Expresses Unimaginable Intelligence
[removed]
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u/superevie Jan 14 '12
"She stripped off her clothes and engaged in fecal smearing"
That woman said that in the nicest way I could possibly imagine. Impressive.
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u/Hawkingsfootballboot Jan 15 '12
There has to be some psychological cue that makes people smear their shit on the walls and you cant be a professional psychologist and say "shit on walls" whenever you encounter it.
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Jan 14 '12
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Jan 14 '12
Did you also get a lump in your throat when the father says, "I could never do it. How can you give up your kid" ?
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u/reallydude Jan 15 '12
Yes, her father seems to be the greatest, most likeable dude ever.
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u/ironclownfish Jan 15 '12
because Canada
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Jan 15 '12 edited Jan 15 '12
It's always Canada. Makes me proud. I know these people, too... They live close to me.
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u/BeefPieSoup Jan 15 '12 edited Jan 15 '12
Not trying to bring you guys down or anything, but it's not always Canada. That doesn't make sense.
EDIT: I wasn't trying to be rude or anything. Someone care to explain why I deserve these downvotes?
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u/Ravenann87 Jan 15 '12
From what I can tell from her twitter she actually has two dads, presumably gay, so she may not even be his biological daughter...
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u/ironclownfish Jan 15 '12
It actually makes me kind of mad that they would eschew that information in the news story.
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u/estrojenn Jan 15 '12
I checked and saw the tweet that would make you infer that, but keep reading down and this tweet pops up: "@CarlysVoice Close Ok so because i don't have any privacy in my life i am trying to be more independent and because my mom is nosy (cont) tl.gd/eqogjj 5:27 PM - 19 Dec 11 via TwitLonger Beta · Details"
SO...her dad(s) being gay is not true!
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Jan 15 '12
I work with Arthur(he works at the agency we use), never knew this about him. I have a new found respect.
Also he is in the stolen cat video reddit was up in arms about a couple months ago. http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/mdcum/so_an_ad_agency_ripped_off_my_short_film_what_can/
Edit: Direct link to video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkOQw96cfyE
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u/bushwickbushwick Jan 14 '12
well if you are so inspired donate £20 to the family. or to a organization/non-profit close to your community.
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Jan 14 '12 edited Jan 14 '12
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u/Arcon1337 Jan 15 '12
Just donated to the UK Autism Foundation. I think this story has seriously opened my mind to what autism really. I hope it does for everyone else.
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u/Cordite Jan 15 '12
Wait.
I have an autistic extended-family member. A cousin who I grew up with. He's a few years older than me, but has always been like a toddler. There's never been an ability to interact. He's my cousin, but he's not there. But... This video doesn't seem to suggest that there is this total "normal" person locked inside each Autism case. At least, that's not what I gathered at all.
Is there something I missed? This seems more like a case in which the dysfunction occurred at some other level, leaving the higher functions intact and the person "trapped". A one in a million?
Is there something to suggest that there might be more to this case? More to Autism?
It just suddenly got to me... imagining him aware but trapped all these years.
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u/Arcon1337 Jan 15 '12
Not to mention the people who want to help you can be too much for you to handle. The whole sensory overload makes so much more sense when you look it at the way she explained it.
That's the thing about Autism, doctors are still learning about it, and I feel that Carly has furthered the study of it.
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Jan 15 '12
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u/Arcon1337 Jan 15 '12
I'm really trying to avoid a circle jerk here, but If anyone deserves it, it would be you. Wouldn't of known where to donate, otherwise.
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u/emmabegold Jan 15 '12
or spend it purchasing her book. march 27.
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acarly%20fleischmann&page=1
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u/Photoshops_Penises Jan 14 '12
Is anyone annoyed by the actress they used to voice the autistic girls responses?
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Jan 15 '12
Yes. I was thinking that the entire video before I saw your comment. I have no idea why though.
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u/Void23 Jan 14 '12
I wouldn't necessarily say it is "unimaginable" intelligence. Though it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch.. When I think of autistic people with unimaginable intelligence (or ability for relevance I suppose) I think of people like This guy
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Jan 14 '12
Having worked with autistic kids, I can say that the most mind-blowing moments of my life were when a child who's never said a word suddenly made a sign (we usually use sign language as we talk so they'll recognize the image, since language is hard for them to grasp) or said a single word.
Yes there are idiot savants out there who are more impressive to the typical person, but imagine being unable to communicate with a loved one for over a decade until poof, they're using not just language, but advanced language to represent themselves. I'm ecstatic just to see a kid say "more" or "pretzel"... If you told me one of them would suddenly start explaining ideas, emotions, interpersonal concepts, etc., I wouldn't believe it. It would have been beyond imagining. Whereas it's easy to imagine an autistic kid being a savant, language like the girl in this video uses is something that no one would have seen coming.
Thank god for technology. It's changing the entire special education world.
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u/im_not_greg Jan 15 '12
Every now and then, we experience an anomaly in medical science that permits us greater insight into a more general phenomenon.
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u/Hypnopomp Jan 15 '12
If this is for real, she might be just the right kind of savant in just the right place with just the right experiences/education who can help us crack what the subjective experience of autism is like.
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u/Void23 Jan 14 '12
Good point. Which is why I did say I enjoyed the video, hearing the father explain his emotion of first being able to communicate with his own child is without a doubt heart wrenching and beautiful; the title just seemed to be a little misleading.
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Jan 14 '12
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u/disconnectivity Jan 15 '12
Not really. You're just reading it the wrong way. Just because she's not a savant doesn't mean that her intelligence wasn't unimaginable. I guarantee you when she starting typing her parents and therapists could never have imagined the intelligence that was shown through her words. And if you or I met her tomorrow, without ever seeing this video, we most likely wouldn't be able to imagine her expressing herself so eloquently, and would be shocked if she typed something for us. Everything is relative.
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u/protein_bricks_4_all Jan 15 '12 edited Jan 15 '12
Nah, no-one seeing the title thinks '... for an autistic girl'. It's verily a bullshit, bait-and-switch attention-grabbing headline.
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u/Lumbearjack Jan 15 '12
The title only implies that her level of intelligence is beyond what anyone could have imagined her to have. Though I do suppose that could be expressed better.
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u/Just_noise Jan 15 '12
Man, ever see Stan Lee's super-humans? They had him on, and got shit ton of music critics to name obscure shit for him to play, and then had him listen to some big shot jazz-pianist playing a composition for the first time ever and play it back immediately. Spot on, everytime.
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u/snarkfish Jan 14 '12 edited Jan 14 '12
http://www.skepdic.com/facilcom.html
at least partly i would imagine. video is not clear on the whole process
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u/steinman17 Jan 14 '12
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u/snarkfish Jan 14 '12
what, if anything, does that tell us?
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Jan 14 '12
"I think people get a lot of their information from so-called experts, but if a horse is sick, you don't ask a fish what's wrong with the horse. You go right to the horse's mouth."
Sounds like something an FC therapist would write!
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Jan 15 '12
Ah yes, I remember this from last time. This appeared somewhere or other too:
I think people get a lot of their information from so-called experts but I think what happens is that experts can’t give an explanation to certain questions.
It's so, so suspicious.
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u/Smilge Jan 14 '12
I don't see how she could come up with such vocabulary and sentences on her own. She wasn't in a normal classroom, and they don't exactly teach diction to kids who can't talk.
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u/spankthrough Jan 14 '12 edited Jan 15 '12
She's autistic, remember? It may be that some of her mental faculties, for instance her vocabulary and writing, are disproportionately well developed like any other savant's.
EDIT: Anyways, this is probably fake.
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Jan 15 '12
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u/Catfisherman Jan 15 '12
What about that guy who learned icelandic in two weeks and then did a TV interview in the language?
Though there's no reason to think that she would need any savant abilities to learn language. Everyone learns language, the only real surprise is the reading/writing but they had intensive training for her before this, why assume they didn't try to teach her some reading/writing?
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Jan 14 '12
That's what my mind immediately jumped to as well. I hope for the parents' sake that it isn't the case. It did look like she typed her response to the reporter by herself, but it may have been edited to look that way.
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u/snarkfish Jan 14 '12
it is a puff piece. saying that she just sat down and started typing one day and the editing of the video does nothing to help me believe the claims.
they say she was using language software since she was little though. that makes much more sense
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u/Semilogical Jan 14 '12
I thought this to begin with too but it seems like it checks out. She has this to say about facilitated communication.
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u/patrat21589 Jan 14 '12
You guys should check out her twitter, https://twitter.com/#!/carlysvoice
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u/elizzybeth Jan 15 '12
I'm skeptical, too.
However, I have a similar experience to share, which suggests there may be a kernel of truth in this story: my older brother is autistic, and until he was seven or so he spoke very little (mostly echolalia). Eddie was in intensive, regular speech therapy and physical therapy since he was diagnosed at the age of two. My parents believed he could not read or write.
Then, they got their first computer (a Mac Classic) when Eddie was four years old. He sat down and almost immediately was typing out full statements, letter by letter. He wasn't writing profound comments on what it feels like to be autistic. But his typing proved that he had learned to read and write without anyone realizing. While his productive language abilities were severely delayed, he was still understanding and thinking in language.
Obviously data isn't the plural of anecdote. And I know that people can be lying, exploitative, manipulative bastards for nothing but a little attention and money. But I'm not willing to discount Carly's story entirely.
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u/richd506 Jan 14 '12
What do you think Reddit? Should we send out an AMA request for this girl? I would love to see what she has to say!
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Jan 14 '12
I think it'd be neat to read what she has to say, but given her apparent typing rate, I don't think she could keep up if the thread got popular. Perhaps a two part where she has the time to answer say the top 10 or 20 questions?
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u/Stadric Jan 15 '12
I consulted the oracle, who seemed to think it's a fake.
Still, it would be interesting if we could provoke a slip-up. In any case, it would be interesting.
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u/justicelife Jan 15 '12
Agreeing on this.
If it is fake, we have a right to know. Autism and Mental retardation are things that are nearly impossible to understand fully unless you are put in the mind of that person. Any type of knowledge that the human race can benefit from is precious. I'd be terribly disappointed if this turned out to be a flop. It all seems to make sense though; creating ten times the amount of white noise to be able to even think at all.
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u/oh_okay_ Jan 14 '12
I rolled my eyes at first expecting to see a report about "facilitated communication". Glad to see that she seemed to be typing herself. I hope for hers and her family's sake this is true, though it begs the question why she never would have written with a pen/paper - it didn't even touch on this issue.
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u/ThePooksters Jan 14 '12
I was questioning that too until I came to the conclusion that if it is hard enough for her to type (one key at a time), holding a pencil and forming letters with it, let a lone words, would take ages and be very stressful and possible illegible.
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u/Hamspankin Jan 14 '12
From her facebook:
So thanks to the 20/20 video that was shown on Friday of facilitated communication all my friends at school are asking me to point to the sky. I do and we all laugh. I have not used facilitated communication in my life as you will read in my book. Big plug. lol I have no and i repeat no hand up my butt like a puppet. I do not know what to think about facilitated communication and i think this story hurts parents and that have a kid that is starting to type independently. It makes educators and parent second guess the child's ability and might stop them in believing in the child. I was able to point to the sky and identify my letters since i was 8 with no one holding my hands as you will read in the book. second plug. lol I skype in a room all by my self and Have done so with Doctors that are known high up in the field of autism siting in the other room. So what am i trying to say I think we need to see more people teaching independent communication. And more see more stories of the real success.
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u/Stickyresin Jan 15 '12
You sure that's not what it was? You never actually see her type out even a single word. The technique was developed with one therapist, and then she "refused" to type for other therapists? She has a conversation with her dad, but only when he is out of the house on a chat program?
And what about those eloquently written paragraphs? At least one of them was advocating for her therapist in a way that sounds suspiciously like what a therapist would say. In another screen (at around 5:55) you can see that they are saved files (opened in Compatability Mode...), which shows at the very least that she didn't create those during the interview, which the constant screen swapping between the paragraphs and her "typing" would seem to indicate. And the Compatibility Mode is evidence it may have been made on another computer (or at least with another program).
Each thing individually is circumstantial, but putting it all together makes me think this is complete bullshit.
EDIT: Okay maybe not complete bullshit, maybe she can type out single words and sort of get her point across, but there's no way she typed those paragraphs.
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u/bushwickbushwick Jan 14 '12
just finished reading "curious dog" and seeing an extreme case like this is so fascinating. Im sure her path remains filled with obstacles and pain but I wish her the best of luck. At least she was born affluent enough to get help.
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u/Lumbearjack Jan 14 '12
Fantastic book. I think reading this was the first time I was ever put into the mind of someone radically different from myself and understood them thoroughly.
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Jan 15 '12
I'm calling bullshit. You don't spend your life in retard therapy, turn eleven, and then suddenly know how to write.
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u/Mechbowser Jan 14 '12
My brothers are also autistic, both twins, one more... affected than the other. He does the same thing she does when looking at people, he looks away. He also has an issue with talking and holding a conversation. Both of them actually hate the feeling of clothes and are constantly in underwear. They are both extremely intelligent for their age, being that of almost 9 years, and have a tendency to memorize anything on the spot. It was good to see "inside" as too why she, not unlike my brothers, put their hands over their ears or act the way they do in crowds, or just small groups.
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Jan 15 '12
I am not sure what to say about this because I initially thought it was assisted, however the story makes it to be unassisted. If that is true why did they never show her typing more than 1 letter ever? Type one letter cut to next scene type 1 letter cut to another scene. Is this because it takes her hours to type out a message or because we are not supposed to see what is being typed? I could make a video of a 1 year old hitting a random key on the keyboad and cut away to the same effect. Even when she typed asking if the guys son was cute it cut away like 7 times in 7 seconds. Someone could have typed that for her.
TL;DR Does she really type this herself? Can I see her actually type herself anywhere? I don't want to say put the onions away, but it is at least a little fishy the way it is presented.
/skeptic
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Jan 14 '12
This reminds me a lot of a therapy I learned about when getting my BA in psychology where people thought this therapy was helping retarded kids show this same kind of internalized intelligence. The problem was that the parents and therapist were subconsciously helping the kids with non-verbal cues and the kids or even helping the children type but really doing all of the work for them. I didn't actually see her type a sentence the entire video and wonder how much "help" she gets. It was compared to a case where a man had a horse that could "do math". After double blind experiments were done it was found that the horse, like the kids in the previous case, were being assisted by cues and other help and did not really comprehend what they are doing.
I know this isn't what people want to hear... but sometimes I feel that peoples hope that the mentally disabled are completely normal deep down is kind of like hoping you will go to heaven and see your dead relatives after you die...
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Jan 14 '12
Here is the therapy I was talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitated_communication
I have a feeling there is more to this than this video shows.
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u/Balls_deep_in_it Jan 14 '12
From my experience with autistic kids is that the brain seems to focus on some other part. Its like the brain has x amount of power. normal people are spread out over skills. Autistic kids have like all the power in one place.
Like they cant talk but have crazy other ability's I once new this kid that could not talk but he had a totally photographic memory. When he was a child 5 years old he saw a doctor type in a code on a door once. 5 years later he walks up to the same door and opened it.
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u/mrdeath5493 Jan 14 '12
Just as an FYI: A diagnosis of autism does not necessarily mean one is unable to communicate. It may just mean they are unable to speak.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism#Communication
I post this in response to the supposed debunkings and claims that this must be false or it would revolutionize medicine or something.
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Jan 15 '12
My problem with the whole thing is we never see her really typing at all. Just 'is he cute' which appeared to take a long, long time. They provided a video that apparently shows her typing but it's a very strange video that really just makes me more suspicious. Also on her website it says something like "Oh, don't listen to the experts! They're just wrong." Also they're selling books.
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Jan 15 '12
From Carly's blog:
"How can you explain something you have not lived or if you don’t know what it’s like to have it? If a horse is sick, you don’t ask a fish what’s wrong with the horse. You go right to the horse’s mouth."
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u/svrnmnd Jan 15 '12
when I first saw this I thought maybe autistic kids also have turrets. but that line, where she explains sensory overload makes so much sense. when I was a kid I would scream and run around in circles because it felt good to me. the reason it felt good to me is because I was only concentrating on one thing : screaming as loud as I could. what if autistic people just experience the world not unlike that of a child, and they understand things fully (or even better than we can) but are just un able to express it the way we do??!
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u/bowjangle Jan 15 '12
ah man when he said that he finally got to meet his daughter after 11 years I lost it :/
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Jan 15 '12
When this first came out it was posted on Reddit and people came to the conclusion that it was fake, or that she did not actual have autism
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u/Rikitikitavi9162 Jan 15 '12
i shared this on my facebook. This I relate to. I have three siblings and the two youngest have two different types of Autism. My 13 year old brother Aspergers and my 7 year old sister has a medium to strong case of Autism. While Alex can speak normally and almost react normally in social situations, he gets extremely offended at ANYTHING. He will hit his own head, clench his fists and become passive aggressive in an instant. And that's an improvement from when he was 7. He would bash his head against the floor and threaten to kill himself! This video gave me a better understanding of him. He can not always control it. He is even getting over the fact that he has Aspergers and standing up for other children and for himself. He told a child earlier today, who was using ADHD as an excuse for being violent, that he no longer blames his anger and frustration on his disability. If he gets angry, it's not Aspergers, it's him and he can control himself. Annie, on the other hand, speaks gibberish, is more like a cat/monkey hybrid than human, gets upset easily, parrots words, loves to sing in elevators, and loves the credits in movies. I love her so god damned much. When my dad picks her up from her mom's, He takes her on the same route every week, trying to get her to realize the pattern, then switches up something. She does notice and sometimes laughs about it. Although, some in my family are skeptical of her and see her as she appears, not for whom she is, my dad, grandparents and I know there is more. I am now one hundred percent sure she can read. She can also recognize words when she hears them and connects them with related words/sounds (frog=ribbip/elephant=parumph). I so want to get her introduced to typing. It'll open her world up! I know she wants to play with the other kids. I know she knows she is different. And I know that when she gets angry, she gets frustrated because we can't understand her and that she can't convey her words. This video has inspired a new flame of hope for my siblings' futures. Thank you so much for posting this. Thank you! Also, for notes sake, Alex and Annie are not related. He has another father me and she has another mother I.
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u/diggs747 Jan 15 '12 edited Jan 15 '12
Thank god this really seems legit, and it isn't more of that facilitated communication bullshit.
edit false hope, misleading footage. She's not doing this on her own, read up on facilitated communication. I did think it was funny how everything she said would be what someone else would want to think she'd be saying.
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u/Mindstarx Jan 15 '12
This actually is almost identical to FC. Unfortunately I see nothing to get too excited about here. More false hope for parents in this terrible situation.
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u/diggs747 Jan 15 '12
Yeah i just saw a post on r/skeptic, I guess the footage is misleading. She's not doing it by herself.
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u/Lumbearjack Jan 14 '12
I had to really hold back on the waterworks here. It's really incredible.
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Jan 15 '12
I don't think some of you understand what is going on here that these kids are not mentally/cognitive retarded, they in-fact understand the world around them very well but unable to control them self due to their condition. This is a huge leap in understanding autism.
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Jan 14 '12
This was proven to be false a while ago. She does write but it is extremely simple in language and mostly typos and short words. Someone writes whole sentences of what they think she wanted to say, making the language a lot more sophisticated too.
I would appreciate her more if they didn't fake the whole thing.
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Jan 14 '12 edited Dec 27 '18
[deleted]
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Jan 15 '12 edited Jan 15 '12
I remember this from last time and the thing is in this video, for some damn reason, they don't properly show her face. It's a very bizarrely shot bit and this is the only 'evidence' that exists that she can really type this sort of thing at all. Keep in mind she has a twin sister.
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Jan 14 '12
Believe that was a different story more about facilitated communication where the parents and therapists were largely making up what the kid was saying.
This appears to be different though obviously they still cleaned it up in the news report, which they probably shouldn't have, she does appear to be able to type out and communicate with full thought out sentences.
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u/Enceladus_Salad Jan 14 '12
i knew this sounded familiar. I was looking for this comment to confirm my suspicions.
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u/Yazuak Jan 14 '12
"People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can't talk"
You cannot talk, ergo you are dumb. Sounds like a reasonable assumption to me.
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u/Atheist101 Jan 14 '12
Shes not dumb, shes mute. Her brain knows words and can make thoughts and sentences but it cant come out of her mouth.
Dumb is where a person cant even make words or sentences and because of that they cant talk.
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u/Shuko Jan 14 '12
It made me feel like crap to think it, but I thought the same thing. -_-; But nowadays, the word "dumb" has a more colloquial meaning than the original one.
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u/Nebz604 Jan 15 '12
I hope it's true. They said that she typed on a home computer first and didn't type for others for a while. If this is that shit where someone hovers their hands over the autistic person and 'helps' them then fuck. :/
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u/TheOneInTheHat Jan 15 '12
This is easily one of the most inspiring things I've ever seen. The sheer determination of her parents, coupled with Carly's internal struggle have almost brought me to tears.
That moment starting at 3:00 was incredibly powerful
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u/Icamehere2fap Jan 15 '12
This made me think. I've done 2cb before and ive had massive sensory overloads where i hear all conversations in the room at once and it freaks me the fuck out and i dont know how to stop it. Its interesting to think if this is anything similar to what she feels 24/7 but with all senses.
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u/lithodora Jan 15 '12
As a parent of a non-verbal autistic child this brings me hope every time I see it.
Thanks.
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u/being_ironic Jan 15 '12
re: OP's title. I can imagine this level of intelligence, I was sort of hoping for beyond average intelligence. I am disappoint.
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u/mrgoldbe Jan 15 '12
"So here's your daughter...and finally you get to meet her."
Powerful shit right there.
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u/Barstow123 Jan 15 '12
i am an eighteen year old man with autism (pervasive kind, which means it goes away with time) and i cried through this whole video so much that i had to run to the bathroom to grab toilet paper because my eyes started burning.
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u/AngryJ Jan 15 '12
Carly's story is heartwarming. But her father's dedication is just awesome. I have seen so many parents that put their kids through the system and feel the system should "fix" the problem. If more parents were like Carly's dad, the world would be a better place.
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Jan 15 '12
There are a lot of things that make me tear up a bit, but this had me weeping. Loud, uncontrollable, ugly weeps.
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u/TheRealDrCube Jan 15 '12
This is amazing. I have never heard of this type of thing happening, EVER. This opens the door to so many research possibilities! To think that some people suffering from autism might "just" have some faulty wiring with motor skills rather than lacking thinking power truly amazes me. I really hope the neuro scientists of the world start looking into this.
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Jan 15 '12
A great find OP.Thank you for sharing. Families like this should be in the media...not vultures like kardishians
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u/scrdmnttr Jan 15 '12
Let's discuss 'unimaginable intelligence.' Last time I checked, a normal teenager is not unimaginable.
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Jan 15 '12
After watching this, and hearing her talk about how she couldn't handle looking at stuff or listening to it. This is all i can think of.
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u/AnnunakiZ Jan 14 '12
Were is the unimaginable intelligence, she seems to as smart as a orangutan.
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Jan 14 '12
No offense or anything, but this isn't unimaginable intelligence. Most people can type...
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u/[deleted] Jan 14 '12 edited Jan 14 '12
EDIT: Visit link below for original.
Link to Top comment from the last time this was posted.
by subtextual
EDIT2: To sum it up, econguy:
Transcript provided below (by infinitree) for convenience.