Carly Fleischmann Research Paper

Born in Toronto, Canada in 1995 was a girl who was constantly screaming and flailing her limbs around, however she was always completely silent. She would always be screaming and flailing about, but no one understood why. One day at a doctor’s appointment her parents were told that Carly’s intelligence would not surpass one of a 6-year-old child. At the tender age of two Carly Fleischmann, was diagnosed with autism. She was unable to speak from her mouth at all.
Only at 3 years of age Carly had to go through up to four therapists a day for around 60 hours a week. According to Alan B. and Goldberglauren Putrino “for many years, Nicole Walton-Allen, a clinical psychologist, led Carly's therapy program.” The therapists eventually taught Carly

how to use picture symbols to communicate.
Completely silent for years, throwing tantrums and screaming, until one day, at the mere age of 11 she typed the words ‘hurt, help’ because she was feeling sick and she was unable to communicate through the symbols.

For the first time ever Carly Fleischmann communicated. Everyone was shocked by how she figured out how to communicate when she wasn’t supposed to be smarter than a small child. Those people who doubted her and looked down on her as unintelligent, were wrong.
When Carly heard of how so many people think she is incapable of thinking or writing she said "I think people get a lot of their information from so-called experts but if a horse is sick, you don't ask a fish what's wrong with the horse. You go right to the horse's mouth."
She had painstakingly started to explain why she would always behave the way she did. She said things like ‘‘You don't know what it feels like to be me, when you can't sit still because your legs feel like they are on fire or it feels like a hundred ants are crawling up your arms.’’ And ‘‘It is hard to be autistic because no one understands me. People look at me and assume I am dumb because I can’t speak.’’ She continued to explain her actions to the world to show everyone that there was no reason to look down on

her.
‘‘I want to be able to go to school with normal kids but not have them getting upset or scarred if I hit a table or scream. I want to be able to read a book by myself without having to tell myself to sit still. I want something that will put out the fire.’’ Carly eventually ended up going to a mainstream high school in Toronto, for autistic kids like herself. After being allowed to go to school, Carly could learn more and more words that she would eventually use to speak to the world and spell out her story.
By the age of 21 in 2012 Carly started a web series called ‘Speechless with Carly’, in her first episode she interviews Channing Tatumm. Carly had always dreamed of being a reporter and in this web series she finally got a chance to live her dream out. The video itself went viral. The fact that Carly’s video went viral shows us that even though she cannot speak and behaves a strange way, she really is funny, interesting and a normal person.
According to Alan B. and Goldberglauren Putrino “there are lots of experts who believe nonverbal people like Carly are incapable of thinking or writing.” Carly Fleischmann, is an autistic girl, who in real life is funny and sassy, she also just wants to live a normal life.