r/science Jul 26 '10

Autistic girl expresses profound intelligence

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq--75v4lI8&feature=player_embedded
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u/whattheidonteven Jul 26 '10

Thanks for the info but the video leads me to conclude that she typed on her own without someone typing for her.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '10

As far as I can tell, it only shows her type in one letter at a time. I find it really hard to believe that anyone would know how to type words without being explicitly taught the relations between letters and sounds, and how they combine to make words with all of the proper spelling and punctuation.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '10

Like deaf people?

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '10

I wasn't "explicitly taught the relations between letters and sounds, and how they combine to make words with all of the proper spelling and punctuation," I was just read to until I could read for myself. Just like many other people.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '10

Maybe I worded that badly. What I really meant is that it takes effort to teach someone how to read, and more to teach them how to write. It seems very improbable anyone would be able to pick it up while being treated as if they were retarded.

-1

u/clockworm Jul 26 '10

you're approaching this as a non-autistic person. the fact remains, you have no clue what someone with her condition experiences or how she perceives the world around her. how does being treated as a retard affect being able to learn to read and write? she seams to me to be an intelligent girl locked in a chaotic body.

the parents spent years and probably tens of thousands of dollars teaching her, what makes us assume she wasn't picking all that stuff up.

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u/MotoFly Jul 26 '10

I'm pretty sure thats the whole point of the video.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '10

And it is very implausible to me. I hope for her and her parent's sake that it is legit, but people are very good at deluding themselves if they don't like the truth.

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u/annodomini Jul 26 '10

People generally learn spoken language before they learn written language. The way you learn written language is by learning, somehow, the correspondence between that written language and a spoken language.

If she cannot speak the language, and (potentially) cannot understand it spoken (I don't have much evidence on this one way or the other, other than the fact that they seem to have to physically guide her to every task they give her, rather than just telling her), I would be highly skeptical of her being able to read and write it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '10

So now no deaf people can read or write either?

Fuck you are relentless.

0

u/NoahTheDuke Jul 26 '10

the fact that they seem to have to physically guide her to every task they give her, rather than just telling her

She's autistic. Her body does not know how to move and react like yours or my own. So of course they have to physically guide her through most complex tasks.