In My Words – video

Written by

This is not your typical video – you may feel impatient or irritable for the first few minutes, wondering what the point of what you’re seeing is.

Don’t turn it off. It will become clear very soon and it’s worth the wait.

At about 3.5 minutes, via a voice synthesizer the person in the video explains her actions and perspective, asking some very profound questions about what communication, intelligence and thought is really all about.

I found this presentation highly insightful and thought-provoking.

What do you think?

Avivah

Comments

6 responses to “In My Words – video”

July 3, 2016

Judy

wow! that is so powerful. To begin with it sounded like some kind of interaction and music- (or sound-) making. Thanks so much for sharing this!

Reply
July 3, 2016

Candy

Firstly, if I were to see this person on the street, based on their interactions with the world, I would treat her like a child. I would be very nice to her. But really my tongue would be one of superiority, as a parent to a child I teacher to a student. I was astounded to hear how she wrote. How deep her thoughts were. How articulate she’s able to convey her a message. I learned something today. Thank you

Reply
July 3, 2016

Mikki

Dear Aviva
Thank you so much for sharing this important video.
I must say that i think she opened my mind and I will think of people differently.
Not only people who don’t communicate in our standard language, but even people who do speak our language, and are also miss interpreted. How often do we have a negative interaction with someone and it turns out to just have been a misunderstanding. We need to stop – or at least severely slow down our judgements that we seemingly make constantly.
I also found it so interestin that although I didn’t judge her as less of a person that myself, I must confess I did think of her similarly to a child. When she said that we do that I was ashamed of my reaction. She is right. She is not a simpleton or a child or anyone who should be treated with condescending speech or actions.
How very thought provoking.
She has a language that is quite broad. And ours perhaps is so very limited. We have been taught to not taste a non-food item. And so if we see someone do that we work to correct them. To FIX them. As long as it’s not dangerous, why stop them? Let them interact as they please.
In my own family no have someone who likes to chew on clothing, it bothered me for quite some time. I thought it was due to the damage they cause the material and the cost of replacing it. Honestly, after watching this video, I see how I was trying to stop the person from interacting in a way they was meaningful for them for reasons that are less important – their sense of self, of expression, of mental well being,……
Wow.
I could go on with lesson I learned (how this applies to teaching children In standard schools, to marriages, to all interpersonal interactions) but I’ll end with just saying thank you again very much for sharing this really important video. And I tremendously thank this woman who made it. It has brought great understanding to my life. It is something to keep and watch again when we begging to think that our own way of communicating is superior to those who communicate differently.

Much thanks

Mikki

Reply
July 4, 2016

rachelli

what a strong lesson! we have learned so much over the past few years from learning

about autism and how they can connect with others with their use of the computer.

really, they have their own language, but they have had to help us to understand their

world.

Reply
1. July 13, 2016
  
  Avivah
  
  I’m so glad to get feedback from you all that this was valuable and eye opening for you! It was mind expanding for me, too.
  
  Reply
September 22, 2016

Yocheved

I have a friend I met online, who is a brilliant blogger. I met her through a chronic illness community that I am in. She is much more severe than I am, and she is completely bed bound and helpless, needing professional care around the clock.

She is such an intelligent and insightful writer, full of positivity and happiness. I was really surprised when I found out that she is also Autistic, and completely non verbal! If you want to check her out, Google the name “Dannilion”.

Reply