The Highwire with Del Bigtree - ‘SPELLERS’ TAKE AUTISM WORLD BY STORM

Episode Date: March 8, 2023

After 17 years as a non-speaker, Jamison learned how to communicate with the world around him through a groundbreaking method, ‘Spell to Communicate’. He not only learned how to unlock his voice, but went on to co-author a book and produce the documentary, Spellers, with Autism advocate, Jenny McCarthy.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

Every once in a while, I have the opportunity, and we in this world, all of us have an opportunity to witness a miracle. And this next story is nothing short of a miracle. This is about autism and something that we've known very little about for so long and an opportunity to see that there is a future for these children and these adults that have been. trapped in a silent cage, unable to communicate their thoughts and feelings. This is a story we covered over a year ago. This is the story of Jamie and J.B. Hanley. Jamie being a child with autism, I don't want to say completely nonverbal, did have some words. But I want to reflect on where we were at with this story, because where it's gone is so incredibly beautiful.

It's amazing. But this is the story of J.B. and Jamie Hanley. Jamie developed normally until about 15 months, and then he had a real regression. And Jamie went from talking and doing normal things to very unusual mannerisms. He stopped talking. He started spinning around in circles and running along walls and funny patterns. So we knew that something was seriously, seriously wrong. And at 18 months of age, Jamie was diagnosed with autism.

As he got older, those mannerisms got worse, because aggression and frustration started to be baked into his day, he's severely disabled. He is unable to speak, but for a handful of words. It's a 24-7 job. Just going through a normal day, we were left to guess about everything. You know, we could walk into Chipotle,

and I wouldn't know what he wanted. I would just guess what he seemed to like. We had to guess how he was feeling, how he wanted to spend his stay. time. When he became frustrated, he couldn't answer if we said, was it this, was it that? And so just getting through a day was a ton of guesswork and walking on eggshells that something doesn't set him off. He would go into what felt like almost a trance of aggression and anxiety where he would stomp up and down, hit himself in the head. Over the years, we've tried

everything in biomedical from like the most mainstream to the most hippie and crunchy idea. anything that might help Jamie we've given to try to. The truth was, none of that had allowed him to get his communication back or his speech back. It was starting to feel super dark. Like, where is this all going? I get a text from Honey Renicella. She's this mom who I describe as like an autism pen pal.

She has two sons on the spectrum. You know, many of us share ideas about how to help our kids. And she said something to the effect of, you will not believe all the things that Vince is saying. And that didn't even make sense to me because he's a non-speaker just like Jamie. And she basically explains to me that four months ago, we thought the height of Vince's cognition was, I want juice, and we started this thing called Spelling to Communicate, and now he's cranking out these sophisticated paragraphs.

She was bridging just enough to be willing to say to myself, fine, fine. We'll give this a try. It is estimated that there are roughly 50 million people with autism now in the world, the rates have skyrocketed for whatever reason. We now believe autism be somewhere in the neighborhood of one in 25 to 1 in 44, depending on what site you're looking at. Autism is more prevalent in boys, so those numbers are diminished down to end up looking at roughly 1 in 18 to 1 in 20 boys being diagnosed with autism, which makes this probably

the most important story in the world today when we think about health. and we think about our brothers and sisters out there, can you imagine if you've been silent, unable to communicate, trapped in this jail cell, and somebody figures out a way for you to communicate, it's spelling to communicate, and this is just a little bit of how it works. I'm an S2C practitioner, which means spelling to communicate.

Basically, I teach non-speaking people to point to letters on a letterboard as a means of communication. We call it the brain-body disconnect, apraxia, that's layman's terms for apraxia. We had to help them connect their brain to their body. So these behaviors become more under their purposeful motor control instead of impulsive or reflexive or just happening sort of automatically. We're learning that autism is more likely a sensory motor processing disorder than anything else.

We're seeing that when we address the sensory and motor differences of non-speakers, they're capable of things that nobody realized they were capable of. changing everything about how we teach and raise children with autism. Great job. Maddie, I'm really proud of you. Truly a miracle, especially, you know, we did a show on this if you didn't see it. Jamie decides and J.B. and their family decide they're going to try it out. And you know, you understand it's got to be difficult after a lifetime of trying so many different things.

The opportunity to be let down is palpable. But they ventured forward and this is what that looked like. As you were going to this first meeting, this S2C, what was your perspective of where Jamie's learning was at? You'd had him in school. So if you were going to describe him at that moment, what were you thinking his education level was at? If someone had asked you.

I think we didn't know. I really didn't know. We measured his cognition by his words. And on that measure, there weren't a lot of words and therefore wasn't a lot of cognition. That was kind of the giant, giant mistake that we made. All right, Jamie, as you were walking up for that first S2C meeting, were you aware of what was happening there,

or did you know why you were going there? Mm-hmm. Go ahead. Yes, I knew my life would change. Wow. Someone is going to finally help my parents understand exactly where I'm at. Was that sort of what you were thinking? Yes, it meant freedom. Okay.

To have my son back, to know what his dreams are, to simply be in a support role with Jamie on his path to life is the gift I never thought I'd get. So Jamie, what is your dream now? What is your dream now? Go ahead. I want to go to college. Wow.

Do you have an idea of what you want to study? Mm-hmm. Go ahead. You got it. You get rise science. Jamie, all those years, 17, years or so waiting for your parents to know the truth that you were in there. Did you always have faith that they would figure it out?

Go ahead. Yes, they never gave up. Love you, buddy. One of the most unbelievable stories I've ever been able to report on, and it is my honor and absolute pleasure to be joined now by Jamie. Jamie Hanley and J.B. Hanley, welcome to the High Wire. Go ahead. Go ahead. You got it.

Mm-hmm. Go ahead. Yep. Get there. Your eyes up. Eyes up. Mm-hmm. Go ahead. And then. Mm-hmm. Go ahead. Eyes up. Yeah. You got it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You're doing great. Get there. You got it. Yeah. Get there. You got it. Get there. Get there. Get there. You can do it.

Do it. Yeah, you're getting a little stuck. Eyes up, eyes up. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. You got it, you got it. You're doing great. Go ahead. Everybody knew what you want to do. Good to be here. It's good to have you here. I want to thank you both. To begin with, I mean, this has been just an incredible journey. Last, you know, I checked in with both of you, Jamie. and J.B., you know, you were looking at wanting to go to college. And I think we were just, you know, just about a year into the spelling to communicate. So over this last bit of time, what has been the transition in sort of this experience from the boards?

And now I see he's typing on his own, which has got to be a huge advancement. So thanks for having us, Del. Yeah. I really appreciate it. And I think it's important to point out that, I mean, we're here for thousands of spellers. Yeah. Because there are thousands. In fact, Jamie's really a second generation speller.

There were many before him who have forged this path that we get to follow along on. And I think when parents watch Jamie Spell, just know that Jamie's maybe in the 85th or 90th percentile, but there's a whole group of spellers. He's doing really well. He's picked it up quicker than some or many. Yeah. And I want parents to realize that this is a, what we're on right now is the culmination of three years, right? We started on a stencil board that people poked,

and then we went to the full alphabet that Jamie poked, and then we went to touching and me holding it for him, and then we went to a keyboard. And now at home, we're only on a keyboard with an iPad. Nothing else. This is all he does at home. Because there's more pressure in this environment. I've provided some backup plans for Jamie to be able to spell.

Everybody saw how Jamie was spelling, good to be here on his own. But then he got a little stuck because it's a little more of a pressure environment. So I picked up the keyboard and he finished. It took three years of really hard work to get to this point and we're not even close to being done. And one of the things for Jamie is that before he went to college, he wanted to be an independent typer. So when he sat in the classroom, no one would wonder at all about who was whose words were coming out of the board.

Right. So we've really, really focused our energy on this. But the goal for college remains very strong. He's finishing a normal online high school, if you will, a neurotypical high school. Wow. Right now, he's developed an amazing group of non-speaking friends who he tries to get together with often. So he has a social life that he never had friends before. And now he has many, and that's a beautiful thing.

and he wants to go to college and study neuroscience and I think find ways to help people like him. And I think that one of the most beautiful things about this community of non-speaking families and again, we're late entrance to this community that was already there. They all want to help other non-speakers. They all want to help other non-speakers.

That's why we're here, is to reach the family who's maybe being exposed to this information for the first time, to do the favor to them that was done to us, to open this door and this world to us? Yeah. That's why we're here. Well, you know, it's an amazing thing you're doing, Jamie,

and we've had so many people that wrote into the show. And I'll say that I rarely get involved in other people's space, but I will, you know, when I have seen since doing this story with you guys, I'll be in a grocery store, and if I see someone, you know, with a child that appears to me to be clearly on the spectrum, and I'll walk up to the parents say, you know, just let me just, I don't want to be invasive here, but can I ask you a few questions?

You know, where are they at in their communication? If they're like, yeah, he or she doesn't really communicate at all, I said, then I really want you to check out a book underestimated and a story. If you just want to watch a video for 30 minutes on an interview I did, is truly miraculous. I think one of the big questions, Jamie, is, you know, all of those years where you were, you know, inside, you know understanding what was happening how hard has it been to go right into high school I mean you didn't go back and start all the way through you know grade school you're only a year in and then suddenly you're starting to go to high school is it difficult go ahead mm-hmm go ahead you can slide yep you got there you get there and then eyes up mm-hmm You know what to say. Yeah. It's easy to do school work. Fantastic.

When we're watching, and for people that aren't, you know, I'm sure, you know, I've obviously spent a lot of time with families that are going through this experience with autistic children. For someone that isn't, you know, doesn't have that experience, doesn't have direct contact. As we're watching this, there has to be some sense of trying to understand, you know, what is we're looking at. So going back to this board, and if I remember correctly, how you described it is, the issue is not where we thought it was perhaps a psychological issue or some sort of,

I guess, brain damage, if you will. It's, what is it, what is it the, why does this work, I guess, is the question. You know, you think about autism. Yeah. How can you have a neurological condition where some of the people are savants and geniuses and others are cognitively disabled?

How can those all belong to the same class or name, if you will? And so maybe what's actually true is that they all are brilliant. That's actually what's possible. And maybe we got the disability wrong, and this is my personal belief that we did, and that the real disability that we're talking about here is motor planning. I actually think that a much better analogy to think about what happened to Jamie is like a stroke victim. And so a stroke victim would lose the ability to use their mind to move their arm or their

mouth, they might lose their speech, whatever it might be, and then they re-milinate pathways, which we know is what the brain is capable of doing through neuroplasticity. And in this case, the communication pathways don't appear to have been myelinated. And fine motor, talking, typing is much more complicated than gross motor pushing. So brilliant but simple idea. Let's only challenge the gross motor first and see if we can't reconnect the communication to the motor and get some output. Right. And pretty, and pretty, simple premise. I didn't really believe it when someone told me this was possible because you're, I mean, you're brainwashed into thinking your kid is incapable.

Yeah. Right? And then lo and behold, it worked. And what's crazy is the hit rate for friends of mine when I finally convinced them to give it a try. If they stick with it for a year plus, it pretty much works for all of them. So I really think we've missed this. I really think that these children are walking around with brilliant thoughts and ideas. I think they have a motor disability. I don't understand. much about the neurology behind why or how or whatever, but like a stroke victim, if you give them enough time and attention and therapy,

they regain that ability to communicate what was always in their brain out through their body again. So that's what's really going on. And, Del, one of the things that I just want to explain to families out there, the impact that this has on the regulation and happiness of the child cannot be understated. I hear this time and again,

and I live it with Gene. me the level of this frustration has dropped down immensely the amount of joy and happiness that he expresses and shows him he looks like so happy is is is is night and day the joy that it brings to a family is impossible to explain to anybody unless they have a child at home and I've gotten these messages over and over again from other people who have the same exact experience that I have all of a sudden the future for your child is exciting and fun and goal oriented and what are we doing? And Jamie and I travel a lot,

and now we go see things and do things, and he asks questions, and he learns, and I show him things. And as much as anything you find as a parent that you change how you treat your own child. There's a beautiful phrase that is pervasive in the spelling to communicate community, which is the presumption of competence,

which is a fancy way of saying, just act like they're intelligent, and they understand everything, and good things will happen. And so just the way that I try, treat Jamie and the way to other parents treat their children changes dramatically because of the introduction of spelling to communicate. Jamie, when we look at this board and the transition you've gone through from the board all the way to typing, I mean, you know, that is such an incredible journey and some people may take it for, you know, you know, we would just take it for granted that it's possible. But what was that move to actually get to this keyboard?

Go ahead. You got it? It was very hard. I would say that every child is different. It took us maybe three months to get to open language on a board like this. It took nine more months to go from a held keyboard to a keyboard in the cradle. And people aren't getting to see what Jamie can do at home, where we never hold the board. But I'm picking it up because I don't want to create pressure for him in this environment.

We were luckily able to capture some of that on film. So it's in the movie. And we lived this way at home of independence, and the independence took a good nine months to get to that point after he was already open, and that's two to three hours a day of therapy. Wow, that's a lot of work. You're looking at hundreds upon hundreds of hours

of amazing therapists and our family's life to get to this point. It's obviously been worth every second to give Jamie the ability to express his thoughts and feelings and goals. But it's not an overnight thing. And, you know, I'm sure autism parents at home are sitting there thinking, well, my kid can't sit in a chair and be on an interview with Dell. Every kid is different. And if the motor planning challenges are more extreme, it's going to take longer,

but with a great therapist, they can navigate that. And just to mention one little nuance that really blew me away, the majority of children with autism who are non-speaking also have ocular apraxia. What that means is they can't get their eyes to move where they want them to. And so you hand them aboard, they can't find the letter because they cannot control their eyes to get there. And so in some cases, the only way to get to this point is to go through vision therapy first. So it just tells you how complex it is.

And you also start to appreciate that even well-intended instructors might have sat there and thought, oh, well, they don't have cognition because they would give them tests that all relied on motor, which they couldn't answer the questions for. I mean, it's really incredible when you think about it. But your, and the belief of those that are all doing this is that, though there may be all these difficulties, you know, I almost think of a person stuck in they're trying to pull strings or something and get this vehicle moving and figure out from, and it's working, it's just not natural, right?

It's taking so much work. There may be layers of issues they're dealing with, but inside of there is a fully cognizant, capable, brilliant human being. It's just going to take time to figure out how to get through all the issues that they're handling. The belief is that they're all inside of there. Yeah, I think Jamie would identify himself as a non-speaker, not even having autism per se. And I personally get ruffled and he gets ruffled when you hear people sort of take the domain of, well, people with autism think this way or think that way.

No, they don't. They're human beings. You and I don't think the same way. We're just humans. No one should speak for you in your mind. No one should speak for me in my mind. I don't think anybody should speak for Jamie and his or any other person who has this designation of autism. I think they're all brilliant and cognitively fully formed.

I think we've completely missed this. I think the therapists who have the courage just to jump over to the other side realize this pretty quickly. When you're in session with these people for extended periods of time, you realize what you're dealing with, these amazingly brilliant, incredibly compassionate, loving, caring people. I would say that learning how much love Jamie had for his family was probably one of the greatest things that happened to our family. Just to allow him, and if I talk to much more, I'm going to start crying, but if just to allow him to express the love that he had felt the whole time for his family was such a special thing and it continues to be because that's ongoing as it is in every family But the people who ever thought that children with autism lack affection I mean these are crazy things that people deduce that are not true And I hope that 10 years from now we we all presume competence with every one of these non-speakers Well, you you obviously won a huge step in writing a book with

Jamie underestimated in autism, miracle truly. And that has inspired a film and being with you and Jamie had said he really wanted to make a difference and share the story. So there's a film that is finished. Here's the folks, this is just a trailer for Spellers. Take a look at this. There's never any doubt in my mind

when someone walks into my room that they can and will spell for me, that they can, and do want to learn. I'm going to teach you how to do something new, totally new, which may feel a little bit weird at first. Autism can take you as a parent to a really dark place. The future is really, really scary.

We had no real reliable form of communication. We had to just basically guess for 20 years. I lost hope that I would ever be enough for them. Are all the parents' fools? Are we trying to live with? trying to live visual thinking? No. I mean, what's anybody going to gain by this? There should be research, academic literature, focused strictly, specifically on this area to help promote it. We should have all been presuming competence in our kids, and we should

have been encouraging them, telling them we knew that they were in there. It's time to shift that whole paradigm. There are 31 million non-speakers with autism in the world who are locked in a silent cage. My life will be dedicated to relieving them from suffering in silence and to giving them to choose their own way. Should schools choose to really work with a student's strong suit, autistics will become tomorrow's innovators and leaders. The average autistic child can read into math by age four,

but can't show it? Imagine the difference we can make in the world of taught how we learn. It's so exciting, you know, Jamie, when I was with you last and we were doing the interview in your home, you really wanted to share your story, you wanted to help all of the other children and adults out there, out there that you knew could be helped with S2C and the spelling to communicate.

Now you have a film, which by the way is my favorite way to try and get the word out there. Who do you want to see this movie? Who should see it? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you got it. Get there, you know.

Eyes up. Yeah, you're good. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you got it. Mm-hmm. Get there. Find it. Yeah.

We know where you're going. going. Get there. Great. Great. Find it with your eyes. Find it with your eyes. Yeah, you got it. Go ahead. Yeah. Get there. You can spell wrong. It's okay. We all know what you're doing. More non-speakers. The non-speakers. And we're talking millions. Well, tens of millions. I mean, my number is 50 million worldwide. Wow. speakers. Just if you take the percentage of people with autism at 1 in 33, you might multiply it by the world's population. 40% of that, we think it's 40% non-speaking autism. So I think that's the range of number that we're talking about. A couple things about the film, Dell. It was Jamie's idea. Yeah. It came out when we were writing the book. He brought this up kind of out of the blue.

It was also really important that he wasn't the only person in the movie. Most of the other cast members are his best buddies. and they really made it together. They really made it together. They'll all be at the film festivals as a cast and as a group. And, you know, to see the joy that Jamie has through his social network is genuinely something that I never thought I would see.

He had a minute to see his buddy Cade two days ago in San Diego. The love that those two guys showed for each other the whole night hugging and hanging on to each other and just having that part of his life open. up has been like nothing has been like nothing else in terms of how valuable that's been. We all have our tribe. We all have our homies. We all have those people in our lives that we can

count on. And these non-speakers outside of the nuclear family, they don't really get that. And yet, here's Jamie mingling and socializing with his buds. And so to be all in the same film together is really, really special for him. Well, I know how hard it is to make a movie, Jamie. And one of the biggest difficulties is trying to get the right type of sponsors. And you picked up some pretty awesome executive producers in my understanding and they're very, you know, in very busy schedules, they've sent us a message. Take a look at this. I think you'll recognize who's making this film possible from the other side. Hi, I'm Jenny McCarthy-Walberg. And I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Before we get started, I just want to tell you Dell and the whole highwire team that you guys are really truly doing God's work. And I'm so grateful. And as Donnie knows, all that comes out in my mouth now is the highway, the highway, the highway. It is not only the best show on television, but the biggest truth we've got. And I'm so grateful for you guys. It's hard work, dedication, and strength because I know it's hard to go up against those giants. And you guys do it every week. And I'm just so grateful. So thank you. Del, you're the best. Your team is the best. Not only are you informing all of us and changing the way we see the world and showing the way that the world works, but you are doing it in a way that's enlightening, entertaining, captivating, and done with true

professionalism and elegance. And thank you. We are so incredibly proud and honored to be executive producers on the amazing documentary film Spellers. The power of this film is really beyond explanation. It has to be witnessed to be understood. But I guess, you know, coming into this relationship with Jenny, obviously, I got exposed on a much deeper level to families with autism and and children with autism and adults with autism and non-speakers with autism. And also to J.B. and Jamie. And I used to talk to Jenny about J.B. and she would tell me about him and Jamie. And one day the conversation shifted and she said, something happened. It's, Jamie's communicating. And I was like, what do you mean? He's communicating. And something had happened.

You know, I can't think of two stronger, bigger juggernuts in the autism community than J.B. and Jamie Hanley. You know, from the get-go, starting Generation Rescue, writing books, challenging doctors on certain TV shows. I've been in great company, and they've helped me so much, not only with my own son, but watching how many children and adults they've helped around the world. world. Again, here we are, here we are with J.B. and Jamie to change the world yet again. Not only change it, flip it on its ass because of the groundbreaking, I want to call it to discovery, even though it's not brand new, it has been around. And isn't it interesting that it's taking parents yet again to introduce these breakthroughs to families and not the medical community? But nonetheless, here we are. And this film will, will show the world that there is more than meets the eye in these children and these young adults.

These children, these young adults have voices and not only voices. They have beautiful minds and beautiful spirits. And I am so excited to show all these, you know, doctors, scientists, therapists, teachers, what they missed, what they might have missed. Because when you see the proof in this film, there's no turning back. There's no turning back. I promise you that this will knock a lot of people on their butts. A lot of people might challenge it.

And I say welcome it. This film gives so much hope. If you've ever wondered if someone can communicate with you or wants to communicate with you, but just can't do it. If you're a family with a non-speaker, if you're a person who needs hope that someone in your life may be able to communicate you, it opens your mind to so many possibilities of the power of the human mind and the human spirit to see these spellers have these breakthroughs.

It creates hope for possibilities that are limitless for all of us. not just people impacted by autism, but if you've wondered if someone in your family who can't communicate with you because of an accident or something may be wanting to or if you wonder if they can hear you, this movie brings that type of hope. And I don't want to give false hope. The movie speaks for itself. I want everyone to imagine, if you don't have a child with autism, just for a second what it would feel like to have your beautiful child and not know, if they're in pain, if they have a tummy ache, if their tooth hurts, if their head hurts, or, you know, what their favorite food is, or if that person is a scary person or if a teacher

is being mean to them, can you imagine not being able to ask those questions, not able to know those answers, but also thinking that they have no idea what's going on in their own world. when in actuality they have every idea of what is going on in this world. They are so tuned in more than we ever realized. I think for every family that's ever wondered if their non-speaker can understand them, can communicate with them, this film will give you an answer. And I'm not saying this method can work for everyone. I don't know, but it's certainly a miracle right in front of our eyes.

It inspires so much hope, so moving, so powerful, and to think that possibly all of these children and now adults were actually capable and understanding everything all along. It's mind-blowing. It, it, it, watching these spellers communicate will leave you speechless. It left me speechless. It's that profound. Yeah. It's so wonderful.

It's what a pleasure and a joy to be part of this film. Thank you with that. Please spread the word and. For sure. Spread the word. Whether you're impacted by autism in your life personally or not, this film will, change your life and this process will change millions of lives. I'd like to end with a quote that Jamie had written on Instagram last year. But the trials I went through in the terrifying years without

access to communication, it was all worth it if the younger kids with autism are spared the pain thanks to the Speller's Force. Thank you, Jamie. Well, that's amazing. Shout out from Jenny and Donnie there, Jamie, it takes so many people to come together to make a movie. What do you want to say to all of those that made this movie possible? Go ahead. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Get there. Yeah, go ahead. You're getting it now. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. You can't say much more than that.

Thank you, absolutely. You know, first of all, let's talk about the film since we're right. here talking about it the film is finished and you know I want to say that I know that for Jamie the goal is for other you know future spellers to see this but I think about like the film awakenings and I think about these stories that we follow this is yeah yeah Jamie expresses joy through after yeah and all those kind things that Donnie and Jimmy said and the the implications of their words knowing how many more will be helped just because they allowed us to use their platform.

I mean, I have no doubt brings him great joy. That is clear. So what is the goal? So this film, I think everyone is going to be blown away by this as I was when I read the book. And now imagining, and we've been watching as Jamie and others have been touring around, showing people what they can do, questions and being asked of, of these children that haven't been heard from some of them, you know, for 20 years, and now they're getting to speak out.

It's going to be an incredible film experience, but how are we going to be able to see it? Well, we thought about the goals for the film, and you of all people appreciate this. We wanted to get into a film festival. We wanted to have a private screening event for our community, and then we wanted to share it with the world. And so those three things will happen, I think, very quickly. We got into the Phoenix Film Festival. Congratulations, James'clock.

It's amazing. So thank you. On March 31st, April 1st and April 2nd, we will have three screenings. Excuse me, those are the final three days of the Phoenix Film Festival. We're honored. We hope that every Speller family will join us in Phoenix and that we will own that festival. So as soon as tickets are available, we will hope everybody will come running and join us there. On April 30th, we're going to have a private screening event around the country hosted by families and practitioners.

You can find all that information on the Speller's website, Spellers, the movie. And I think not too long after that we're simply going to share the movie with the world. I think that one of the hard things for me about a film is that you want to go through all these festivals and find a distributor and that can take years. Yeah. That just doesn't feel morally right with this movie. I know that for me a single phone call changed our family's entire life. I think this film can change lives.

I think that the most important part of the film is that you hear from the spellers themselves. And so I think pretty soon after those private screening events we're going to find find a way to share the movie with the world because that's the most important thing. There's such an exciting time. The joy that you're feeling, what, you know, what makes you happy right now? Go ahead. Whatever you want to say? I'm so happy people are hearing the truth.

There is pushback. Ginny had talked about, you know, it's going to be controversial. I think people watching this would say, What is the controversy here? Like, I mean, from an outsider's perspective, what's the controversy? Well, there's a very powerful organization called Oshah, American Speech Hearing Association, I think.

And they give people the SLP designation, which is speech language pathologists. So they hold your credential at hostage, if you will. And they've denounced. Denounced it. They've denounced this as ventriloquism and a magic trick. Here's a couple of headlines. Asha warns against rapid prompting method,

spelling to communicate. This is them stating it right out there. With RPM, you can't tell whether the words being spelled out belong to the autistic child or to their aid. The aid holding the alphabet board may move the board unintentionally in the direction of the letter that they think the child should select next. This is called facilitator bias, a documented phenomenon in which a helper unintentionally influences the message produced.

Aides might well have good intentions, but in using RPM, they may unknowingly insert their own assumptions and thoughts into the message. simple way to reduce facilitator biases for the aid to place the alphabet board on a table or mount instead of holding it in the air The primary goal of speech language intervention is independent communication Which is a basic human right independence is critical. It ensures that the words thoughts and feelings and individual expresses are indeed their own and not the words of another person Here's the here's the great irony of that statement. Yeah, we all read it with our own eyes and ears. Yeah, they said if it's mounted right? It's reliable And if it's held, it's not. So apparently we've gone back and forth.

We've watched both things happen. Reliable and unreliable communication. What's interesting about that is, as I mentioned, Jamie's probably in the 85th percentile. He happens to be the speller in this movie. He doesn't mean that he's the best speller in the world. Right. There are many kids out there who are typing completely independently

and mom and dad are sitting across the table from them. Did Asha ever bear witness to that group of people? And if they didn't, what are they talking about? Right. And if people start popping out of wheelchairs, you don't start saying, oh, well, what's the science to prove they're walking? Right. You bear witness to the fact that they're walking across the room. Right.

Okay. And so they've never done that. And I guess they don't understand the idea of skill progression or training wheels. But if that 15% above Jamie, who are also typing on a mounted board, which they deem reliable, got there through this method. But they want to cut the method off at the knees before the kids have a chance to get there. I think it's sad, pathetic, and unconscionable. And Bruno Betelheim was a disgraced, I believe he was a physician of some kind, who claimed that autism was caused by cold mothers.

Right. Refrigerator mothers, I think was the term, right. I think the August statement is the Betelheim of our time. Yeah. And why not bear witness to the group who are typing at the table rather than disavow it without any knowledge? It got to the point in Jamie's otherwise well-meaning autism. school were the SLP in that school, he wouldn't bear witness to what Jamie was doing.

He refused to be in the same room. You can imagine the impact that had on Jamie and on us. And I understand at a level, he was actually worried about his credential because he's an SLP. But that's pathetic. That's pathetic when you lose sight of what matters and what's important. And so I don't like talking about Oshah all that much. I just think the tidal wave of Spellers is going to overrun their idiocy.

and they can join the party at any point. I know plenty of SLPs who've jumped ship and are doing spelling to communicate and privately message me because it's the right thing to do for these kids. And then they see what happens. It's interesting because watching, and it makes me think about all communication

that clearly, you know, the aid and having this comfort that you provide, we can see Jamie is fully capable of typing on the board, but sometimes, you know, when you're with him and sort of holding it and you're not moving it, I've watched you. I watched you the last time, and now we're watching him clearly use the board without you there.

We're on live television. But aren't we all communicating in some way? How well do we communicate when someone's giving us negative energy or we're in a scary environment, feeling comfortable? Well, think about a little gymnast, and they can't stick a landing without their coach standing there to maybe catch him, even though he or she doesn't catch him 98% of the time.

Right, right. There's an energy. And they just like, yeah, my hand, I'm in touch you. Or the day when you finally let go of the bike. Yeah. First year on the training wheels, then you finally let go with a bike. The most important thing is that the communication,

this is our family's feeling for Jamie, is independent and reliable. And so I was explaining to you off camera. At home, he only does two hands on a five keyboard. In a pressure environment, he's doing a mounted keyboard with an occasional hold because of the environment that we're in right now. But at home, each day I try to move

one inch further away from him. Nice and easy, right? At some point, I'm going to be sitting on the other side of the table and I'm going to stand on the other side of the room. That might take me a couple years to get to that point. But let's have some grace. And Elizabeth Vossler, who founded Spelling to Communicate, who's based in Hurd in Virginia,

she said it best. She said, if we over-educate them, what's the harm? Right. But if we under, what have you done? Yeah. I think that's where we are.

Jamie, I'm sure everyone you imagine has good intentions, but what would you like to say to the people at Asha that say that this isn't real? Go ahead. Yeah, you got it. And then find it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Go ahead. Mm-hmm. Get there. Mm-hmm. Get there. You can do it.

Find it with your eyes. Eyes up, eyes up. Mm-hmm. And then, mm-hmm. Get there. Get there. Go ahead. You got it.

Get there. Eyes up, eyes up. You're doing great. Yeah. We know what you're saying. Go ahead. Get there. Eyes up. Eyes up. You can do this. Yeah. Yeah. Get there. Sorry. Dad's getting into the way. Go ahead. And then. You need to wake up. I think that about did it, Jamie. If that didn't wake them up, then nothing will. It's so sad. This is so, throughout history we see this, right? and inability to grow, evolve, bear witness to what's really happening. It's horrible because parents who try to get this paid for in their public schools have the Asha statement used against them. But I want to put Asha in proper context. They're not getting in our way in the sense that we're doing this.

This is happening. It's a revolution. It's happening. They're going to college. They're living their lives. They're becoming happy and joyful. Their regulation is improving. The joy in the family is increasing.

We're going, man. We don't need you. We don't need you. They're not getting in our way. They can't stop us. And hopefully this film will just take it to another level. Well, Jamie, Jamie, I want to thank you for coming in here. I know this is a very strange environment to begin.

You're amazing. You have written a book. You've made a movie. You are changing the world. You know, there are neurotypical children watching you right now. And adults thinking, I couldn't do that. For everyone that's afraid to step out, what is your message? to them. Go ahead. Go ahead. Get there, you got it. Yeah, you can do it, I know. Yeah. And then,

mm-hmm, mm-hmm, go ahead. Get there with your eyes. Yeah, you got it, you got it. Now just try it. All right. Just take the first step. That's it. Absolutely. It's clear as day. That's what I say to everyone too. One step at a time. You guys are making a amazing giant steps for humanity and for a group of people that have been overlooked. And I think that that has all come to an end. So, J.B., thank you for joining us today. We love you, Del. We appreciate you.

We really do. You've been a great service by sharing this message, so thank you. Absolutely. Jamie, I want to thank you for coming in too. It's such an honor to have you here today. Truly honored. And for everyone, you want to have screenings or figure out how you can do it.

The film is Spellers, I believe it's April 30, if they're working on a national screening. I would guess that could be international if you want to get involved with this. Go to the website, check it out. Speller's themovie.com slash screeners. Get involved. Even if, you know, I'm sure we're all fascinating and want to see it, but it is hard to get a film out there.

This is where we make a difference. Obviously, the media is against this. The, you know, the regulatory agencies, Asha, are all going to try and stop it. That's why we as people make the difference by getting involved. So once again, thank you. so much for joining us today. Truly an honor and this is it is witnessing a miracle and what a gift has been to be a part of this story and the little part that I've gotten to be here. So thank you for blessing me that way. Thank you guys. Thank you, Iware. Appreciate it.