Carly's Voice
Breaking Through Autism
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4.1 • 16 Ratings
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
In this international bestseller, father and advocate for Autism awareness Arthur Fleischmann blends his daughter Carly’s own words with his story of getting to know his remarkable daughter—after years of believing that she was unable to understand or communicate with him.
At the age of two, Carly Fleischmann was diagnosed with severe autism and an oral motor condition that prevented her from speaking. Doctors predicted that she would never intellectually develop beyond the abilities of a small child. Carly remained largely unreachable through the years. Then, at the age of ten, she had a breakthrough.
While working with her devoted therapists, Carly reached over to their laptop and typed “HELP TEETH HURT,” much to everyone’s astonishment. Although Carly still struggles with all the symptoms of autism, she now has regular, witty, and profound conversations on the computer with her family and her many thousands of supporters online.
One of the first books to explore firsthand the challenges of living with autism, Carly’s Voice brings readers inside a once-secret world in the company of an inspiring young woman who has found her voice and her mission
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this unsparing but affecting account of remarkable Toronto teenager Carly Fleischmann, it's clear that while most people take the ability to communicate for granted, for Fleischmann it defines her daily struggles and miraculous successes. Early on, Carly, a twin, is lagging behind her sister, neither talking nor crawling. She is diagnosed as pervasively developmentally delayed, a spectrum of disorders that includes autism. Her doctors believe she will always be below average intellectually and eventually need a group home. For the family, this begins a decade of chaos: endless physical and speech therapy, battles with the government over health coverage, and untenable exhaustion as they try to make sense of a condition that has no cure and keep the rest of the family from fracturing irreparably. Of this time of hopelessness her father writes, "his was not a life but a slow demise." After years of silence, a transformative moment occurs when Carly expresses herself by typing on her voice-output device for the first time. Finally they are getting to know her. "I felt like we were discovering the lost city of Angkor," her father writes. Although Carly's typing is sporadic at times and her uncontrollable impulses, OCD, and insomnia are ever present, the world has opened up for her. In this inspiring story, Carly has a bat mitzvah, starts attending mainstream gifted classes, and has become an autism spokesperson.
Customer Reviews
One Magical Journey.
I would just like to say thank you to Arthur, Tammy, Matthew, Taryn and especially Carly Flieschmann for sharing your beautiful story with us. I am a Mental Health/Learning Disabilities Nurse and I am currently completing an Autism course at university and am to complete an essay on same. This book was recommended by numerous lecturers and I have to say I am so glad I bought it. I have a learning difficulty and struggle to read books and take in information, but for me, this is one of the easiest books I have ever read. I did NOT want to put it down! I laughed, I cried, I sat in silence in awe at the effort and time put in by the family. I am going to struggle to quote from other books as half of the pages from this book are highlighted! It takes you on such a magical journey with the family and teaches you to think twice. "Never judge a book by its cover" has never wrung more true! Thank you.