Autistic genius novelist woos the literary world with novel composed using "Facilitated Communication"

[Lithrael]

Nolan communicated and wrote by means of a device (the 'unicorn') attached to his head. His life was not comparable.

Are we sure? "he could use a pointer strapped to his forehead - his "unicorn". While this tapped at a typewriter, his mother held his head"

I've only read two articles, both mention his mother holding the head he's communicating with, both mention him & his mother being insulted by the idea that his mother could be doing the communicating, neither mention whether he can communicate while anyone besides his mother is holding his head.

I would be interested to hear if he ever tried writing with an eye tracker instead, like ALS paralysed Jeff Sutherland used to write 'Still Life.'

 

[catsmate]

Are we sure?

Yes.
Starting with Eva Fitzpatrick, the OT who developed system that allowed him to write. He relied on drugs, initially Lioresal, to relan his neck muscles to enable him to write. Later he used a computer and eye movement sensors.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Ah shoot! I was gonna watch this, but now the Telepathy Tapes guys got it copyright struck. So it's gone.

I tried searching the name and found some true believers saying not to listen to him because he's an ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊, just like that James Randi guy.

That's a pity. It really sucks when scammers are allowed to shout down legitimiate criticism of their criminality.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

I suspect that they may not have had much of a choice. The Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws may have tied their hands.

I would doubt that very much. Most likely the mother is upper class with the kinds of contacts that would get her son into college and awarded degrees so inappropriately.

Never attribute to much needed legislation what can be far, far, far better attributed to the class system.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

I would doubt that very much. Most likely the mother is upper class with the kinds of contacts that would get her son into college and awarded degrees so inappropriately.

Never attribute to much needed legislation what can be far, far, far better attributed to the class system.

To be fair even the best and most necessary legislation can potentially be misused in extreme cases and I can completely understand why institutions from the High school up might not want to push back on this occasion and potentially find themselves in a very bad PR lawsuit (especially since they would be very restricted in what they could say while his mother is free to tell her side with whatever spin she wants). I'm sure they're figuring that since all communication come through her anyway, one of them has earned the qualification but no-one can prove who.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Yes it is. He'll never be allowed to develop the skills he is capable of, he'll never be allowed to communicate with anyone as long as his mother persists in believing or scamming everyone with her "transcription" of what she thinks he would point out on her letterboard, he'll never have a voice of his own.

What's being done to Woody is nothing less than abuse, physical, emotional and mental.

 

[angrysoba]

Yes.
Starting with Eva Fitzpatrick, the OT who developed system that allowed him to write. He relied on drugs, initially Lioresal, to relan his neck muscles to enable him to write. Later he used a computer and eye movement sensors.

Thanks for that. Glad to hear it was legit.

 

[Myriad]

What's being done to Woody is nothing less than abuse, physical, emotional and mental.

It's certainly exploitative but from Woody's viewpoint it sounds like he might have managed to arrange his life exactly the way he wants it. He gets to have all his favorite stims (at least, three of them, no requirement to choose) continuously and uninterrupted for apparently as long as he wants, as long as he waggles his fingers in the designated general direction. For this arrangement to have come about, he must have expressed displeasure with different simpler arrangements somehow, perhaps by withholding the finger movements or perhaps by other more conventional nonverbal means. It's likely he also signals what he finds acceptable with regard to food, toileting, and the like by more conventional nonverbal means as well.

I accept that he would be better off (in terms of having his wants and needs better satisfied in the long term) if he were taught to communicate more genuinely with techniques that actually work. However, such learning is also stressful, with a lot of frustration on both sides of the process. Such as, measures to focus his attention on repeated attempts to communicate with him that he doesn't yet understand, as well as frustration with his own attempts to communicate back that are not understood. (For an ordinary child at school, these correspond respectively to having sit quietly in a classroom instead of playing, and turning in work that's marked wrong.) The rewards are worth it, but like a teenager who would rather play video games than play sports or study, I can understand why he might prefer things the way they are right now.

 

[Lithrael]

(...) Later he used a computer and eye movement sensors.

Ah ok there we go. That was the info I was missing.

 

[Vixen]

What's being done to Woody is nothing less than abuse, physical, emotional and mental.

All based on a ten-second clip? To be fair, the mother has not pushed any method to the public. We don't know Woody's medical records. How do you know the current emphasis on his disability isn't a PR attempt to make his astonishing levels of intellect more remarkable, by highlighting what an impossible disability to overcome, because, let's face it, he got his high school diploma, presumably in a range of topics (interesting how people just assume he 'can't do maths or physics', which shows just how much prejudice there is).

 

[Vixen]

It's certainly exploitative but from Woody's viewpoint it sounds like he might have managed to arrange his life exactly the way he wants it. He gets to have all his favorite stims (at least, three of them, no requirement to choose) continuously and uninterrupted for apparently as long as he wants, as long as he waggles his fingers in the designated general direction. For this arrangement to have come about, he must have expressed displeasure with different simpler arrangements somehow, perhaps by withholding the finger movements or perhaps by other more conventional nonverbal means. It's likely he also signals what he finds acceptable with regard to food, toileting, and the like by more conventional nonverbal means as well.

I accept that he would be better off (in terms of having his wants and needs better satisfied in the long term) if he were taught to communicate more genuinely with techniques that actually work. However, such learning is also stressful, with a lot of frustration on both sides of the process. Such as, measures to focus his attention on repeated attempts to communicate with him that he doesn't yet understand, as well as frustration with his own attempts to communicate back that are not understood. (For an ordinary child at school, these correspond respectively to having sit quietly in a classroom instead of playing, and turning in work that's marked wrong.) The rewards are worth it, but like a teenager who would rather play video games than play sports or study, I can understand why he might prefer things the way they are right now.

By Woody's own account, he was so fed up of being treated as a non-learner at school, he threw his chair up at the classroom ceiling in frustration. He claims to have several things going on in his mind all at the same time. Not all that dissimilar to an able-bodied person watching telly whilst at the same time reading a text message, eating food, responding to a conversation.. I could read and talk at the same time so was surprised to be told, 'I can't write AND listen' so you'd have to wait until they were ready- just because most people seem to only be able to concentrate on one thing at a time, you can't assume it applies to everybody.

 

[zooterkin]

By Woody's own account,

Which comes via his mother.

 

[Vixen]

Which comes via his mother.

Only because you've taken it for granted he's incapable.

 

[arthwollipot]

Only because you've taken it for granted he's incapable.

Do you have evidence of Woody communicating by way of anybody other than his mother?

 

[Vixen]

Do you have evidence of Woody communicating by way of anybody other than his mother?

You are the one making the unkind claim his condition is a hoax and a fraud perpetrated by his mother, his old school, community college, UCLA and Columbia.

 

[Vixen]

Meet Robbie: a non-verbal autistic person who understands everything perfectly well.

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

 

[arthwollipot]

You are the one making the unkind claim his condition is a hoax and a fraud perpetrated by his mother, his old school, community college, UCLA and Columbia.

I'm not claiming that his condition is a fraud. That is a lie, and you should be ashamed of itself for telling it.

Facilitated Communication is a pseudoscientific practice and exploitative fraud. At best, his mother is deluding herself. At worst, she is exploiting her child for attention and/or the royalties from the novel that she wrote, not him.

 

[zooterkin]

Only because you've taken it for granted he's incapable.

Regardless of whether he's capable, it remains a fact that all communication from him comes via his mother. It is therefore somewhat foolish of you to refer to "his own account" as if that is a guarantee of veracity.

 

[Vixen]

I'm not claiming that his condition is a fraud. That is a lie, and you should be ashamed of itself for telling it.

Facilitated Communication is a pseudoscientific practice and exploitative fraud. At best, his mother is deluding herself. At worst, she is exploiting her child for attention and/or the royalties from the novel that she wrote, not him.

And you got this from wiki, which clearly defines it as someone having their arm or hand pushed. Yet you blindly believe this is what Woody's mother forces him to do which is NOT what you see in the 10 -sec clip. It is telling that people prefer to believe the worst in people without even investigating further.

I am done with this thread. Keep fooling yourself that sticking to a dogma written by someone else (whose terms of reference in that particular case was someone who had cerebral palsy - something else all together - and one who really couldn't move). That is not being 'sceptical'. I won't be so unkind as to say that it is blind prejudice, but likely more a case of not understanding disability issues and how reasonable adjustment works.

 

[Darat]

Thinking that everyone else is as ignorant as you are in this matter is rather foolish.