From: caringchildren

From: Momtoalltweets

Keep sending them in!

This is what Carly had to say in the meeting.

CARLY: It’s funny because I feel the schools are using labels to hold people back. I am autistic but does that mean I can’t be a part of the same education that someone who is not autistic gets. If Albert Einstein was around in this century, fifty out of a hundred doctors say he would be diagnosed with learning disabilities and A.D.D. The other fifty say he would have been on the autism spectrum. When Albert went to school he was in a one classroom school house and was given a chance to learn. His teacher was quoted saying that Albert did not pay attention to any of the lessons that she taught him. She went on to say that he had to wear the dunce hat more times than she put logs in the fireplace. Yet she still gave him an education that led us to E=mc2. What if he was born in today’s time and put in a segregated school? Would we know what E=mc2 means? Stephen Hawkings was seven years old when he lost all oral ability in his mouth. He made lots of sounds but could not talk. Thanks to some amazing teachers that saw the potential in him, Stephen stayed in a mainstream class and is now one of the smartest men in the world with a P.H.D in science and many papers on black hole phenomenons. But what if the teachers did not let him stay in school? Do you think he really would have met his potential? I am not saying I am going to come up with the next e=mc2 or write a dissertation on black holes but I would like the one thing these two individuals and many more like them had and that is a chance. School is about teaching young minds knowledge and I have proven with my IQ test that I take in all the information that is given to me. So please help me fill my head with knowledge. I am eager to learn and eager to put my own stamp on the world. Please help me do so. Thank you for listening to me.

By ALAN B. GOLDBERG and LAUREN PUTRINO
Aug. 6, 2009

Her finger hovers over the keyboard, sometimes for hours, before she painstakingly begins to type:

“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.”

Something extraordinary happened to Carly Fleischmann, a severely autistic 14-year-old who, unable to speak, was once written off as mentally deficient.

“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.”

There are experts and skeptics who believe that nonverbal people like Carly are incapable of thinking or writing.

“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.”

Watch Carly’s story on “20/20″ Friday at 10 p.m. ET

Check out the lastest video previews:
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8263063

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8262959

Carly:
I like hanging out with typical children because it pushes me to control my behaviors and find different stims that look more suitable. But it is not easy. I get judged for sounds and noises I make. However this summer I did walk away with lots of friends and emails.

I do hang out with autistic children as well and like that too. I have many friends in L.A who spell like me. Its fun to hang out with them because I don’t have to explain anything to them, they just get it.

Momtoalltweets asked: You talk about audio filtering, how did you learn to audio filter?

Carly:
I am glad you asked that question. I learned how to audio filter on my own. However I did pick up different techniques from therapists, even though they did not know they were teaching me. I have been getting better at audio filtering in the last 2 to 3 years. It has helped me be able to understand better and communicate with others.

Bigheartofgold asked: Do you have a service dog? If yes do you find it helps? If No why not?

Carly:
I don’t have a service dog. No one has ever offered me one. I did see a kid at my school with one and I could see how it would help. Who ever thought of the idea was really smart. I do have a regular silly dog but she cant do much. She is still looking for her tail.

Ndwells05 asked: I just finished Sean’s Autism Service Dog website! You can check it out at
www.4pawsforsean.webs.com

Carly:
Sean is 10 years old and needs your help to get a service dog. Pls go to his website and donate what ever you can. Since I don’t have a service dog I asked Sean to let me know if it helps him so I can let you know. I have lots of people twittering questions about service dogs but did not have the answers. Sean should help me shed some light on this. Oh and to Seans mom you did a great job on his web page!

pamsfan1 asked: So many people don’t understand autism. We have been advocating for our son since he was diagnosed.

Carly:
A lot of times its not that they don’t under stand its that know one has educated them. The only time an autistic person is on the news is when something bad happens. Or one day a year to raise awareness for autism. But autism day should be every day. People like Larry king Oprah and news stations around the world should publicize it every day. That’s the only way we will get people to learn.

jhannah asked: Am i the only person with a child who dips pizza in hummus? Danny’s autistic so i guess that makes it OK, LOL!

Carly:
Its funny you should say that. A lot of times when autistic children and adults eat food, we have a hard time with textures and smells. It can be a little over barring some times. We block these things out buy adding dips to mask the problem. I like dipping my pizza in mustard and at camp I dip my food in ranch dressing.

Caringchildren asked: Whats it like being a silent observer of things going on around U? When you found your voice did it open the world to you?

Carly:
Being able to hear things that people don’t know I hear or no I’m in the room but don’t think I hear it is cool some times. But some time you don’t want to hear things that you do. Spelling has helped open some of the world to me but has also cased some problems.
In a world of silence communication is everywhere. You just have to know how to look.

Momtoalltweets asked: What thing about being autistic do you like? What’s the worst thing about being autistic?

Carly:
I like when I shock people because they think just because I’m autistic I am not smart. The worst thing is not being able to control my self even though I know what I am doing is wrong.

Healher, AlternaMom, Gfcf4autism, pddnosfamily asked: What is audio filitering? Can you explain audio filtering?

Carly:
Audio filtering is what we do when we take in too much audio information. Its why so called experts say we cant process information. But we are processing the information but we are weeding out all the incoming sounds and it can takes a long time.
Think of a autistic person like a I-pod. We take in over a hundred sounds a minute. Lets call them songs for the ipod. you down load all your songs on to it and get put into different categories. In order for us to understand sometimes when we are overwhelmed we have to categorize all the sounds. We label the ipod. That is the run on sentence that we say over and over again. It could also just be a word or sound that we use. Audio filtering can take up to a week to weed through all the sounds and information we are processing.

A lot of the sounds I hear people tell me they cant hear them because they can focus on one sense at a time and it blocks out all the other incoming sounds.

My answer to that is:I was once told a blind man wanted to be deaf and a deaf man wanted to be blind. But its always better to be your self.