The Reason I Jump review
Written on 28th Oct 2022 by Alex Lowery
The Reason I Jump was a book released in Japan in the year 2007. It was written by a nonverbal autistic boy by the name of Naoki Higashida. He used facilitated communication to explain what it’s like to be autistic. The film got adapted into a documentary-style film in the year 2020. I’m going to be talking about the film today.
I saw the film just the other day I thought it was brilliant! It showed nonverbal or semi-verbal autistic young people using facilitated communication to express themselves along with parents explaining it from their point of view. It was like the perfect combination of the two perspectives.
I have seen some controversy around the book. Some people have theorized that Naoki didn’t actually write the book at all and it was written by his mum claiming her son had written it. Well, I did see the film and a number of things that Naoki spoke about I could relate to and identify with. Assuming these quotes were taken from the book, I find it unlikely that his mum would have written them. I can’t say for sure but I do know there are definitely nonverbal autistics that have used facilitated communication to communicate. So many of the things said hit so close to home that I don’t really picture a neurotypical person who would have been able to come up with it all. It’s just too accurate of an insight.
If his mum did write it she must have based her words off of other what other autistic people have said. One of the autistic people featured in the film (Joss) explained his long-term memory. He mentioned that he remembered past things so vividly that there isn’t much difference for him between a memory from something last week and a memory from something years ago. His memories are so scattered that his life was like a slideshow coming at random. I very much relate to this! My short-term memory is appalling but my memory of certain past events is so vivid that it’s like it happened yesterday.
Someone mentioned obsessive interests and that autistics need special interests because if they didn’t have them they’d go crazy. This makes a lot of sense to me because I have often felt that special interests bring autistic people joy in a world that is often filled with stress and anxiety. They mentioned that repetitive things are like comfort because they’re predictable and they’re not filled with shocks that will trigger anxiety.
I hope you enjoyed this article
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