TIME May 15,2006.pdf

Inside the Autistic Mind By Claudia Wallis The road to Hannahs mind opened a few days before her 13th birthday. Her parents, therapists, nutritionists and teachers had spent years preparing the way. They had moved mountains to improve her sense of balance, her sensory perception and her overall health. They sent in truckloads of occupational and physical therapy and emotional support. But it wasnt until the fall of 2005 that traffic finally began to flow in the other direction. Hannah, whose speech was limited to snatches of songs, echoed dialogue and unintelligible utterances, is profoundly autistic, and doctors thought she was most likely retarded. But on that October day, after she was introduced to the use of a specialized computer keyboard, Hannah proved them wrong. Is there anything youd like to say, Hannah? asked Marilyn Chadwick, director of training at the Facilitated Communication Institute at Syracuse University. With Chadwick helping to stabilize her right wrist and her mother watching, a girl thought to be incapable of learning to read or write slowly typed, I love Mom. A year and a half later, Hannah sits with her tutor at a small computer desk in her suburban home outside New York City. Facilitated communication is controversial (critics complain that its often the facilitator who is really communicating), but it has clearly turned Hannahs life around. Since her breakthrough, she no longer spends much of her day watching Sesame Street and Blues Clues. Instead, she is working her way through high school biology, algebra and ancient history. It became obvious fairly quickly that she already knew a lot besides how to read, says her tutor, Tonette Jacob. During the silent years, it seems, Hannah was soaking up vast storehouses of information. The girl without