Autistic Girl Expresses Profound Intelligence
Carly Fleischmann is a 13-year-old girl who has severe autism and is unable to speak a word. Two years ago, working with pictures and symbols on a computer keyboard, she started typing and spelling out words. The computer became her voice.
I wish my brother could communicate so well. I always wonder whats going on in that boy’s head.
I have aspergers, and no one understands why im so good at communicating online, so courteous, etc. and why i do some of the things i do in real life. This video sums it up. I know Aspergers is very high functioning compared to her (i don’t need any special programs at school or in life, even) but this girl is an inspiration to me.
Hello Chris, I have a 20 yr old son who has Aspepergers. Like you, I was inspired by this story. The challenges of a young adult with AS are different than those of a younger, high functioning child who is mainstreamed in school. There are many things that I grew to understand about my son’s condition and responses over the years that this young girl has been able to put into very profound words.
I don’t consider aspergers a form of autism, honestly. I know many people online and in real life who have it, and I had no idea until I was told.
I may or may not be an asperger’s sufferer. No one ever diagnosed me but psychologists talked about it. Anyways, it’s nothing like what this girl goes through. In fact it’s so easy to deal with I can even catch my tendencies and stop them. Really, it’s just social difficulty and impulsiveness, along with some clumsiness. I deal with it and 99/100 people I meet don’t suspect a thing. I’m kind of offended you’d compare yourself to this girl who is literally in agony. Try doing salvia sometime and imagine if you were ALWAYS high on that. Autism is scary like that.
It is great to see Carly’s progress. I notice a lot of “so called normal” adults are locked in a sort of “American Myth” and when they learn to type words and meanings seem to come out into being more human. I know a guy who teaches Western Languages in Thailand who was autistic in his youth. Not as profoundly, but he was blocked 100% in his 20s.
holy crap thats cool
This girl shows amazing courage in the face of incredible adversities. We can all learn something from her. This story is very touching.
While I understand your comment was meant to be positive, it is incredibly insulting. Disability is not courage in the face of adversity. It is simply an alternate, ingenious way of being in the world than your way. To belittle or to put on a pedestal completely misses the point of embraces difference. You didn’t learn the point from Carly. Carly’s story is is precisely about that. She wants to be a normal person, not a hero, not someone who touches your emotions of pity. Embracing difference is getting over and past the difference while still understanding that difference. Embrace difference. Bring it in close to you. Live it in your own way. See the world differently, in as many different ways as you can, all the time, in everything you do and find the difference and love that difference in every one you meet.
adversity: difficulties.
so you don’t think that being placed perminately in an alternate state of mind like her would qualify as an adversity? you don’t think that spending 40 hours a week trying to connect with our world and overcome this adversity counts as couragous? that’s “incredibly insulting”. ironically you “belittled” the difficulties she faced and “put” her state of mind “on a pedestal” at the same time.
I think you’re the idiot. You can call it “Different” and pretend that it’s not a “Disability” if you want to, but that doesn’t change the facts. She’ll never hold a job, have a relationship, and so on. She can’t speak, drive a car, play basketball…
Not to say she isn’t brilliant and gifted in her own ways in spite of her many disabilities.
Can’t help but disagree with this. Courage is absolutely the word I would use - I don’t have any disorders or disabilities, but I definitely have a hard time sharing what’s going on in my personal world with other people sometimes. I’m sure you do too. No matter what the struggle is, voicing it - or in this case, typing it - is an act of courage. And yes, we can learn from that. Both scientifically and personally. There is a definite difference in writing someone off as a “hero” and recognizing their heroic traits along with their flaws. We’re all human. But sometimes people do things that make us remember the point of being human in the first place.
Well you do not know how hard it is, you have it extremely easy you need to take advantage of that.
I’ve been friends with an autistic guy in my grade since eighth grade, when I was his partner at an “Outdoor Adventure” camp. He can talk and has an amazing memory, and can recite things like license plate numbers of teachers and the cars they drive, and their phone numbers, etc. I try to talk to him a little when I see him, but I never realized that he has a deep understanding until I saw this video. Now I’m going to try to talk to him normally instead of in a high-pitched, little-kid voice and I’ll ask him more serious questions than “what did you do over the weekend?”.
A true inspiration. I have a 11 yr old daughter with distonic cerebral palsy who fights every day to fit it with no avail, people treat her differently and kids don’t want to have any thing to do with her, I’m her best friend and wouldn’t have it any other way
I wish the best for you Carly, there is so much more you can do 
This clip blew me away, my daughter Hanna is profoundly autistic and Carly reminded me so much of her when she was younger, Hanna is nearly 21 and doesn’t talk. My son is autistic too, there is hope, this clip has proved that, we can never give up on our special kids, god bless Carly
Being a mother of a child on the Spectrum this video really pulls at my heart. Does anyone know what the blog link is for her? I would love to ask her some questions to help me help my son more.
I loved this! I went onto Facebook and twitter so I could stay up to date. Carly will be able to open her world up to others and help thousands. Truly a great story.
I would like to follow her on Twitter! Does anyone have her Twitter link?
http://carlysvoice.com/
I teach severly handicapped non verbal students. I know that everyone of them hears and appreciates what others do for them. Don’t discount them because they don’t answer.
haha so much for profound intelligence. I wonder how this girl humps
F*** you Pete Zaria. What a horrible thing to say you moron.
you are a very sick person Pete and don’t deserve to be in society.
Incredible, I had no idea how autism effected someone until I saw this video about Carly. I have a much greater understanding and respect for people suffering from autism now.
Wow. This young lady is certainly inspiring, but I have to say I’m more inspired by her amazing parents. My son is on the spectrum, so I have a little bit of insight into what they’re going through. They should be very proud of themselves - she is a very lucky young lady to have them as parents.
I was struck by this too. When he said “How can you give up your kid?” it was incredible - this seems like such a basic fact, but some people just don’t get it. Just don’t understand that love is over all.
Wow absolutely beautiful and inspirational.
I have been saying this my entire life, that those with autism and other mental handicaps are smarter than we give them credit for. Amazing video wish more people knew about this
Carly’s story is very touching and inspiring for me as a speech therapist ~ there is hope! and she’s right ~ never give up!
My 28 year old daughter has autism. She was diagnosed back before this became the epedimic it is today. In fact, there was so little knowledge of it and what to do for her. I often feel helpless because I thought it was too late for her. Thank you Carly–you’ve given me hope. I will try harder to reach through that shell now.
Very touching. She lets me to know that what courage is in our life. I can learn what is the meaning of do not give up in every challenging moment. Carly expressed her inner world and her words truly reflected people with autistic young children. As I am working with children having special needs, this video helped me to walk inside my children’s “silent world” and I believe their voices must be listened in one day. Do not look down on your special kids because they have profound intelligence we never know.
Beautiful story about an even more beautiful young woman. =) Best of luck to you, Carly. Let your light keeping shining on through!
Im sitting here crying while I watch this. My son has autism. Not anywhere like this. He is considered to barely even have it but I see where he could have been…I see that she could help explain to me, to him, whats going on inside him.
I am 21 years old and was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome when I was 6 years old. Growing up, the schools didn’t have any idea what to do with me, but my best friend Billy was worse. He had lower mid level autism. He didn’t speak to anyone except his family until he was 8 and the first person he spoke to was my mother. While he wasn’t bad as Carly here, it was hard sometimes. After our freshman year of high school he was placed in a special school and I didn’t see him for several years. About a year ago, I ran into him in downtown Chicago. He acted like the same old Billy, but I found out that he was now studying Mathematics and Astro Physics at Illinois Institute of Technology ((Our version of MIT)). He had always been worlds better at math than me. But let Billy’s success and Carly’s story tell the world that just because you don’t relate to people, just because you may not be able to speak, just because your ‘weird’, doesn’t mean you aren’t a brilliant, beautiful human being just like everybody else. Bravo Carly, good luck to you.
Lets just hope she doesn’t become a scientologist because of her therapist.
Where is her twin? The video said she had a twin sister. I’d be curious to see how everything has effected her as well.
Way to go, Carly. Keep up the good work. A modern translation of the Bible may help you, just as it is helping me. You can find many online to choose between. Google is good for looking up the meaning of words, and the history of places. The Creator is always there and knows our language, even we have a much harder time telling who we are to others.
Wow. This makes me reconsider a lot of things and wonder how many kids like her are trapped because they have NOT found their voice.
When we finally realize that “having a voice” is only one part of being human, and that anything we think defines “happiness” is subjective, we will stop sidelining people because of differences. It’s not just AS, or CP, or autism, or short stature, or funny looks — as Hafiz says, thinking of ourselves as more or less than any other person “immediately breaks the wine glass”, by which I take him to mean “destroys our connection with God.” We’re all in this together…
My cousin Daniel is autistic, he acts out and shakes in weird ways and throws tantrums just like Carly. I have hope now that some day he will find a way to express his feelings. I love him with all my heart. And I hope the best for him. Carly is my inspiration, I hope I can find a way to communicate with her. (= <3
There is such a revelation in what she describes physically happening in her body!
I am so sorry this has happened to her or any child.
I wish I could help. I would treat this child naturally, cleanse her body from the toxin/element that she is fighting. Her immune system seems overloaded.
There is hope for her, there is always hope. Look how far she has come already!