A story in this month’s issue of Wired magazine provides insight into the minds of non-verbal autistics. We’re introduced to Amanda Baggs, a 27-year-old Vermont woman who is autistic and doesn’t speak. She types her thoughts into a computer that translates her words, providing her with a synthesized voice.
In a fascinating YouTube video she created, called “In My Language,” Baggs explains her seemingly unusual behavior and repetitive movements as being “[f]ar from purposeless,” but a way for her to interact with her surroundings. These misunderstood actions, she says, are her "native language."
My language is not about designing words or even visual symbols for people to interpret. It is about being in a constant conversation with every aspect of my environment, reacting physically to all parts of my surroundings.
Far from being purposeless, the way that I move is an ongoing response to what is around me….The way I naturally think and respond to things looks and feels so different from standard concepts or even visualization that some people do not consider it thought at all. But it is a way of thinking in its own right.
According to Wired, there is growing movement among some researchers who believe autism isn’t necessarily a disease to be eradicated, but one that needs to be better understood.
It may be that the autistic brain is not defective but simply different — an example of the variety of human development. These researchers assert that the focus on finding a cure for autism — the disease model — has kept science from asking fundamental questions about how autistic brains function.
Read more about Amanda and watch her video on Wired.com.