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

[catsmate]

Here's a non-verbal autistic person who became a professor ... thanks to his...mother.

But not using her as his only medium of communication. So not comparable at all.

 

[Helen]

Here's a non-verbal autistic person who became a professor ... thanks to his...mother.

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So he speaks and reads and communicates freely with others. He is, in other words, not non-verbal, so how is he relevant? Do you believe all disabled people are alike?

 

[zooterkin]

Here's a non-verbal autistic person who became a professor ... thanks to his...mother.

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View this content on Instagram

As already pointed, completely irrelevant. He was non-verbal, but overcame that with the help of his mother, among others. He can now communicate perfectly adequately by himself.

How about responding to some of the relevant posts you've chosen to ignore, such as the responses to your introduction of Rivka Galchen?

 

[arthwollipot]

Here's a non-verbal autistic person who became a professor ... thanks to his...mother.

Does he communicate only by the method of Facilitated Communication?

The topic for the thread is Facilitated Communication, not autism.

 

[Vixen]

Because she is using a system that is already discredited. Plus of course that we can see what he points to and what she claims he pointed to for ourselves and they don't match.

She uses her son as a meat-puppet.


Please show the evidence that he communicated with Riva Galchen without his mother facilitating that communication.

You are the one claiming that Woody has come by his proud achievements unethically. I have pointed out the Disabilty legislation guidelines that institutions such as universities follow, by law. You are claiming any pushy parent can come along using fraudulent methods which even ASHA and the American Psychological Society do not approve and, in fact, veto. You are the one mocking Woody's mother, so the onus is on you to demonstrate cheating, given Woody graduated high school, community college, UCLA and Columbia. Simply reciting dogma based on old threads about other individuals doesn't do it. You ought to know vulnerable individuals are entitled to be accompanied if that is a reasonable adjustment.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

You are the one claiming that Woody has come by his proud achievements unethically.

And there you go again. Still pretending people are saying Woody has done something wrong. Your desperation to attack people in that way is not helping you.

 

[Darat]

You are the one claiming that Woody has come by his proud achievements unethically. ...snip....

Not one person in this thread has made anything like that claim.

 

[Vixen]

And there you go again. Still pretending people are saying Woody has done something wrong. Your desperation to attack people in that way is not helping you.

Denying that someone has achieved their qualifications fairly is unkind to that person.

 

[Helen]

Nobody is claiming that Woody has done that.

 

[Pixel42]

You are the one mocking Woody's mother, so the onus is on you to demonstrate cheating

No.

Woody's mother is the one claiming she is communicating with her son with a technique which looks suspiciously similar to ones which have been very thoroughly debunked, so the onus is on her to demonstrate that claim under conditions that eliminate the possibility that she is similarly fooling herself and/or others. We are the ones pointing out she has yet to do so - something that every single person or organisation that has uncritically accepted her claim should also have done.

 

[Darat]

No.

Woody's mother is the one claiming she is communicating with her son with a technique which looks
suspiciously similar to ones which have been very thoroughly debunked, so the onus is on her to demonstrate that claim under conditions that eliminate the possibility that she is similarly fooling herself and/or others. We are the ones pointing out she has yet to do so - something that every single person or organisation that has uncritically accepted her claim should also have done.

Not looks similar it is one of them, she's said so in interviews. She's even used her puppet to publicly praise the "creator" of it.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Denying that someone has achieved their qualifications fairly is unkind to that person.

When I write a novel and claim it was only dictation as I was receiving psychic messages from Emily Bronte, nobody is going to complain that EB was cheating. Likewise here. Nobody is suggesting Woody used unfair means or sought unfair assistance.

There is no form of words you can devise which will make what everyone here is saying mean they blame Woody for any of this.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

A quick note to remind Vixen that when we say the problem is Woody's disability, we are referring to his inability to communicate; we are not referring to his intelligence.

We don't think he is too stupid to do these things. We just don't have any evidence that he is doing these things, and we do have a little evidence and a hell of a lot of inference that his mother is doing these things.

You've hit upon it. Vixen has finally found a soulmate and will now defend him with her heart and soul, even if it takes half a thousand more posts of sidestepping every counter-argument.

 

[arthwollipot]

You are the one claiming that Woody has come by his proud achievements unethically.

Woody hasn't come by any achievements at all. Every one of them has, in fact, been achieved by his mother.

 

[steenkh]

@Vixen, what would it take to make you doubt that Woody’s achievements are in fact his mother’s achievements?

It has been shown that his mother is using methods that are indistinguishable from fraudulent methods, in the videos it can be seen that Woody is pointing to different letters what his mother claims, and he points at letters on a moving board that he doesn’t even look at. It seems to me that only a public statement from his mother could convince you, and perhaps not even that.

 

[Vixen]

When I write a novel and claim it was only dictation as I was receiving psychic messages from Emily Bronte, nobody is going to complain that EB was cheating. Likewise here. Nobody is suggesting Woody used unfair means or sought unfair assistance.

There is no form of words you can devise which will make what everyone here is saying mean they blame Woody for any of this.

A huge number of books are ghost written (Spare, Nobody's Girl, Waiting to be Heard, et al) plus friends in the publishing trade hint that many of the top income writers who churn out 'novel' after novel, have teams of ghostwriters and 'researchers' supplying them with material. (Not to mention editors changing stuff.) These can never be Booker-nominated. But who's to know John Smith wrote that book and not someone else using his name? You don't. The copyright goes to whoever asserts it, and here it is Woody claiming authorship of Upward Bound.

 

[Vixen]

Woody hasn't come by any achievements at all. Every one of them has, in fact, been achieved by his mother.

How did he get into UCLA or Columbia?

 

[Helen]

A huge number of books are ghost written (Spare, Nobody's Girl, Waiting to be Heard, et al) plus friends in the publishing trade hint that many of the top income writers who churn out 'novel' after novel, have teams of ghostwriters and 'researchers' supplying them with material. (Not to mention editors changing stuff.) These can never be Booker-nominated. But who's to know John Smith wrote that book and not someone else using his name? You don't. The copyright goes to whoever asserts it, and here it is Woody claiming authorship of Upward Bound.

No, he didn't.

How did he get into UCLA or Columbia?

He didn't.

 

[Vixen]

@Vixen, what would it take to make you doubt that Woody’s achievements are in fact his mother’s achievements?

It has been shown that his mother is using methods that are indistinguishable from fraudulent methods, in the videos it can be seen that Woody is pointing to different letters what his mother claims, and he points at letters on a moving board that he doesn’t even look at. It seems to me that only a public statement from his mother could convince you, and perhaps not even that.

As has been pointed out numerous times, that clip was from a short book promotion with a limited time slot. Guests are given the interview questions in advance. It takes the mother one hour to transcribe one paragraph. Here's news for you: all those TV programmes that are recorded 'live' and look ad hoc and chaotic, are actually carefully scripted, planned and structured in advance. All the TV shows I've ever been an audience member in (including a Christmas carol concert) had the performers, (a) rehearsing, and (b) making them do take after take after take. Then, before it is aired, it is cut and edited yet again to fit programming time slots.

Questions for you: are you really going to take an obviously edited 10-sec clip from Jenna's Book Club - so badly edited you can see it jumping to Jenna in an obvious cut - as proof the mother was cheating? Do you think that is reasonable?


Or is it more reasonable to assume UCLA and Columbia have standards?

 

[Vixen]

How did he get into UCLA or Columbia?

The same route as any other applicant!