This is Carly http://youtu.be/xMBzJleeOno - pressumed to be retarded (please excuse the word) and on the other end of the spectrum - this is Jacob - (after watching this video a few times I noticed his head nodding, I think he uses that to stim and he seems to echo quietly if you look at his lips, he also does little looking at his mother) http://youtu.be/g91IQsS2spA

As I hope you can see both are amazingly intelligent people. For Carly to get to a laptop and type, it took her a while to work out how to communicate with us but ultimately she did what the therapists around her did not. Since she has written books and is going to mainstream school and is starting to make sounds. I can't believe in this day and age after they have worked out that Stephen Hawking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking ( The thought was to give Stephen Hawking his voice back to see if there was some cognitive function there because he was such a brilliant mind. They were all pretty astounded when they found his cognitive function still sound.) is still amazingly bright that they can't work out that special needs does not equal slow cognitively, therefore with out very little assumptions there is the entire spectrum of iq in the special needs community. -----Sorry this is my pet hate and the sooner people understand this concept the better it will be for people with special needs, at the moment they almost may as well live in the dark ages being stuck being treated like they are not intelligence when they are is like torture.



The lady who has helped so many autistic people's lives. "Different not less"










That movie gave me so much hope as a mum. If a more severe autistic person could live and be independent so could my son. She has been an absolute inspiration.

I am sick to my stomach of poor parents basically either being told that their child is either too intelligent to be ASD or the other side that because their child is severely ASD that they have a very low cognitive child.