Autistic Girl Expresses Profound Intelligence

I think we need to get past what the true definition of what Autism or Mental retardation is. Half of these post are bickering about it. What is important is to try and figure out what is exactly going on in this girls mind. She is somewhat trapped in her body and has found a way out through a keyboard. This needs to be a exercise through out the Autisic world to find out who else can be heard this way. I'm sure she isn't the only one. People need to treat them with more dignity. They are our brothers and sisters who probably are smarter than most people you meet daily. They just have trouble expressing this. I have a family member who is autistic and never ever would I treat him differently than anyone else I know. He is highly intelligent and has a memory that is unbelievable when it comes to certain things but will forget your name somedays.

You know how they say we use only 10 percent of our brains? Maybe they use other parts. This is why she is not able to speak because her brain doesn't work on that side of the brain.

Although this is controversal subject some believe that it is a Neanderthal trait that is passed down from interbreeding with them thousands of years ago. Neanderthals are thought to be very smart but didn't have the ability to talk. This is just a thought, not trying to tee anyone off. This is just a subject I found out doing research on it.

reply to post by CAELENIUM


You're right and it makes one sit back and wonder, who REALLY has the issues in this life?!

I am assuming many posters on this thread are just young. I hope that's what it is and therefore, it's a little more forgiving.

reply to post by starwarsisreal


i was thinking about that while watching the video. Especially when she wrote "i take over a thousand pictures of a person's face when i look at them". I was like wow. Does she have a different time perception? Enhanced senses? Is there any way to contact her?

But why cant she talks?

Wow that's incredible. When you see her jump around like a chimpanzee (no offense), that's incredible she can manage so express herself like this. It really changed my view on autism : Its much worse than I thought.

[edit on 24-7-2010 by ickylevel]

great story, great parents, thanks for posting.

reply to post by impaired


ATS has not had a positive article up in a while where it leaves you feeling great and happy for the future of human life. we are able to combat this problem and now come close to uniting life.

reply to post by CosmicEgg


Mercury and Autism go hand in hand, I've read a very fascinating article that provided proof and I just tried to look for it but I couldn't find it. When I come across the article, I'll definitely post it up here.

[edit on 24-7-2010 by eLPresidente]

reply to post by starwarsisreal


My son has Broad spectrum autism (Asbergers) and does have some very unique abilities...empathic traits, precognition (from what I learned through personal experience he can see events as far as a Week ahead).

But this is not to say ALL who have autism have the *same" abilities, just that the mind adapts and performs differently, just as it would in you or I.

Hightened sensory perception is most likely the key, our 'normal' brains filter out ALOT of what we sense every second, in an autistic mind it doesn't filter the same...so sensory overload occurs.

But if you learn to adapt/cope, you can have some very useful skills others do not have.

reply to post by havanaja



And don't forget the 24+ vaccines tiny babies have to take before the age of 2. They really mess up a childs immune system and have shown to raise autism rates dramatically If I were to ever have any more children I would NEVER put them through this again.....

Originally posted by Esoteric Teacher

the angel in me says:

i'm pretty sure autism is a side effect of intelligence.

The angel in ME says that her inability to control her body and self limit the sensory inputs is not just a matter of high IQ, and that no matter how intelligent she may be, it is maladaptive.

I also dont think Hawkings intelligence is the cause of his physical issues, incidentally.

Sometimes, intelligent minds are coupled with bodies/brains that do not perform as intended.

While I think this young lady is very bright, and I applaud her and her parents and caregivers, I do not think she is evidence of an evolutionary leap to greater intelligence coupled with the lack of the basic physical abilities needed to feed and care for oneself unassisted. It just doesnt make evolutionary sense.

I hope people like her, that have managed to bypass the physical problem and communicate can help guide researchers to the root of the problem, and offer a cure or treatment so that these intelligent humans dont have to live in agony or discomfort, or be shunned by the people they want to connect with.






[edit on 24-7-2010 by Illusionsaregrander]

reply to post by TroyB

I have to agree with what you have said about the way that most people tend to filter a lot of information out. (I am paraphrasing you; I hope that's okay.)

I have a form of epilepsy. I say "a form" because not all epileptics collapse on the floor and thrash about, and I'm one of those who is spared that. (Perhaps it might have been better if I did, as my actual condition went undiagnosed -- or better put, misdiagnosed -- until I was well into my thirties and so life up till then was rather difficult, shall we say.)

But anyway, like autism and some of the other conditions where the brain seems to be wired a bit differently, it does affect my perception, precognitive levels and empathy (very intensely) and hence how or what I filter. So, in that respect I can appreciate what this girl means when she mentions banging her head and so on. I can also appreciate how difficult it is to feel more-or-less trapped in a life where I know perfectly well what I'm thinking but at times I'm simply unable to express it, or where sometimes bits of time just seem to vanish and then others stretch out. I'm also a synesthete, so that adds a little spice to the mix as well.

I have long been fascinated by people who have unusual mental processes and oddly enough, even before I was diagnosed myself, I spent some years as a professional providing remedial services to people who had learning "disabilities" -- mainly with reading. I found that in most cases while "disability" might have been the correct term from society's standpoint of what is taken for "normal", some of those I worked with were very able indeed; all they needed was help to find ways to utilize the abilities they had. Once we found the key the progress could be remarkable.

We are indeed fortunate to live in an age where most societies have adopted an attitude of encouraging awareness and understanding towards those who are in some ways "different". This girl's story serves to further that attitude and for that reason I'd like to express my thanks to the OP for sharing it with us.

Best regards,

Mike

Hi,

Sorry but still in tears... what a wonderful and profound post!

Thanks.

Peace!

Am i the only one here who think autism might be the next evolution of super intelligent humans and "autism" is the bridging point, as in the body is working out things step by step and making mistakes in the design, such as working out how to increase the input that the brain can clearly take but in a way that doesn't overload the rest of the senses in a way that we see autistic person reacting to.

The pain that they feel may be the cause of an evolved nervous system (which in a completed design would increase our senses of touch and maybe increase the way we attune to our environment) which hasn't found a way to not overload the brain.

When she said she hears multiple conversations/sounds at once to the point of overload where she has to block it out, could this be basically super hearing that the body hasn't found out how to process properly yet without overload. Like when you and I walk into like a pub or a heavily populated area and all you can hear is murmuring even though there is possibly hundreds of coherent conversations going on maybe they hear all of those conversations in full detail instead of the murmuring you and I would hear and it causes a sensory overload because the evolution of it hasn't tweaked the details of that yet.

Also when she talked about why autistic people don't like to focus on say a human face for any period of time because of all the info (i think she said something like taking a thousand pictures or something) being pumped into the brain in an increased fashion, because they eyes are evolving to produce better images and maybe even from a greater distance.

Im not hugely into this subject but this was the kinda stuff popping into my mind when she was trying to explain why she does things in correlation to what the environment is giving to her, such as touch/feeling, sight, hearing, taste and so forth, she seems to be processing them all at alarming levels and maybe just maybe the body hasn't worked out all the kinks to getting this right yet.


But hey this is just a theory and the first thing that popped into my mind as i was listening to what she was saying.

Any thoughts ?



[edit on 24/7/10 by King Loki]

reply to post by King Loki


Hi!

I'd probably say the converse. That we are fortunate enough to be able to filter all the multiple sensations/conversations/images and that those unfortunate to suffer from autism can't.

As she said, she is wired differently - inability to speak (which takes a fair amount of coordination of thought/muscles etc. therefore she is 'exposed' to other sensory feelings.

I'm extremely myopic but when I used to go body surfing (blind as a bat) I could sense which waves would dump and which wouldn't whereas my mates couldn't.

Peace!

reply to post by King Loki


Very interesting theory you have. What if she is hearing thoughts rather than actual voices? Could that explain why she starts acting up and hitting things due to all the information at once being pumped into her brain? Like she says it's a release. If you where hearing other peoples thoughts constantly wouldn't you eventually just want to scream or thrash out?

Even her dad use to think she wasn't absorbing her surroundings but it seems she was picking everything up. She was just not able to share what she was learning until she started typing.

I found it interesting how she seemed to spell everything correct for the most part. I know people who aren't diagnosed with anything and can't spell or write like her.

Originally posted by One Moment
reply to post by impaired

 

..........."it's a way for us to drown out all sensory input that over loads us all at once. We create output to block out input"



Ah.........wha? That is profoundly well-worded.

I think these kids/humans are nothing less than geniuses stuck in a body where their limited brain function simply can't keep up with their advanced mind.

Great thread!

Thank you! I know - that sentence is nothing short of amazing.

Originally posted by unite_life
reply to post by impaired

 

ATS has not had a positive article up in a while where it leaves you feeling great and happy for the future of human life. we are able to combat this problem and now come close to uniting life.

Thank you. It feels good to actually post something up that's poignant - instead of the other crap that I've put up and all of the doom and gloom stuff we see here on ATS.

I'm am so happy that this helped a lot of you folks...

And this video is over 3 years old. I'm actually dumbfounded that *I* of all people was the first to put this up.

Some of us are too busy trying to fear monger and make threads about absolute BS. We need more inspiring stuff like this.

I hear stories like this all the time how these kind of people posess some sort of crazy abilities, even something as simple as memory, except that it's perfect down the recalling the last word or digit from something 10 years ago. In this video she started talking about sensory overload and I found that really interesting.

Its just even more interesting to me because today I was on the train and this random guy with autism or something kept slapping me on the arm and giving me props and then he just outright hugged me and kissed me on the shoulder after, it was pretty funny. But it was really nice, I wasn't insecure about it, nor did I show him anything but happyness. I thought, yes.. there is nothing wrong with this, 2 strangers hugging.. hahaha. And you know everyone laughed at looked at me like I was the victim of something that would make them insecure or annoyed, but damn it actually made me really happy. And I am one happy guy as it is.

Makes me wonder sometimes. I'm into meditation and I can go on about ESP and whatnot. It makes me wonder about these people though.

Thanks for the vid, thats one of the most fascinating things I've seen in a while. I'll never look at them the same.

Sorry to be the party-pooper here but...anyone considered that this could be a cruel hoax?

It reminds me of that story where the man who had just woken up from a coma after 20 years was able to communicate via typing on a laptop...only it turned out that some crackpot "therapist" was "helping" him type these things and it was all a very cruel hoax.

Seemed to me like she could only type these thoughts when a "therapist" was sat beside her and we never actually saw her typing these intelligent thoughts in the video.

I'd like to see her do this in a controlled, testable environment that's all I'm saying.

Each one of us is special in our own way.

Those who we view as inferior, may in fact be superior.

Consider "idiot savants", for example. People who are socially disconnected but have rare talents, that most of us could only dream of having.

In much the same way, this new "window" into autism could be truly groundbreaking.

Thanks for posting.