Autism Light #344 is Naoki Higashida.
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Naoki Higashida is a 21 year old from Japan who has autism. Naoki was born in 1992. When he was just 13 years old he wrote the book The Reason I Jump. Although nonverbal, Naoki was able to author the book by spelling out words on a Japanese alphabet letter board. Naoki Higashida is an Autism Light for the way in which his writing has had a positive impact on the autism community.
Autism Light first learned about Naoki Higashida two years ago when researching Larry Bissonette and Tracy Thresher, who are Autism Lights #217. Larry and Tracy refer to Naoki as a fellow traveler and his bio appears on their Wretches and Jabberers blog. Naoki was also shown in the Wretches and Jabberers movie, when Larry and Tracy visited Japan.
The Reason I Jump: Naoki Higashida wrote The Reason I Jump as a memoir that answers questions about why he does certain things as an individual with autism. It was published in Japan in 2007. David Mitchell and his Japanese wife KA Yoshida translated the work into English in 2013.
Naoki Higashida gives this as the reason he wrote his book. "We are misunderstood, and we'd give anything if only we could be understood properly... I hope that, by reading this book, you might become a better friend of someone with autism (Naoki Higashida as Quoted by William Mandy in SFARI, 11/15/2013)."
You can purchase The Reason I Jump from Amazon.com.
DecodingMyAutism.com is our website to try and help parents and children living with Autism in their lives. We are focused on delivering you the best book we can possible create. When you think of a sunny day and your child is happy, but there is always that thing you should mention. Or that little factoid that could make the difference between an awkward moment and a delightful experience. What do I truly need to know to take care of your child for an hour or two?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your Book "The reason I Jump". It helped me very much to understand my son and his reaktions and his specialities much better, although he is less severe affected. Thank you so much!!!
ReplyDeleteI am looking very hard for a book, that helps him (6 years old), understand his beeing and the differences to other kinds better. That hepls him, to feel less like an isolated island but sees, there are other kids that are just like him and face the same problems. That opens him some ways to handle the problems he faces beeing the way, he is. And that makes him see, that he is just diffrent but very special and valurable the way, he is. And that when others mock him, it is them beeing unsocial and bad, not him.
Maybe, some day, you write a narration about a little boy with autism and how he masters his everyday life and copes with the special challenges, his environement demands from him to help little boys with autism to understand why they have special challenges and how they can cope with them?
Hello Alan Stokes, thanks for this nice resource.
ReplyDeleteI don't find how to contact you...
eric.lucas@autisticalliance.org
My contact is listed on some of the pages. AutismLight@gmail.com.
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