The HighWire Studio plays host to the award-winning documentary, SPELLERS

The Highwire with Del Bigtree

News, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2023

⏱️ 125 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The HighWire Studio plays host to the award-winning documentary, SPELLERS, with a Q&A before a LIVE studio audience immediately following the film. “What if everything you thought you knew about autism was wrong?” SPELLERS answers that question, in convincing fashion, through the stories of eight nonspeakers—Aydan, Evan, Sid, Maddie, Jamie, Vince, Cade, and Elizabeth—who all found their voice through the miraculous process of using a letterboard to communicate their thoughts and feelings. As Jamie explains, “we think, feel, and learn just like everyone else.” SPELLERS challenges conventional wisdom regarding a group relegated to society’s margins: nonspeakers with autism, who most “experts” believe are cognitively disabled. The film blends beautiful cinematography with heart-wrenching stories of these eight spellers and a strong message for every parent of a nonspeaker: your child can do this, too.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	There's never any doubt in my mind when someone walks into my room that they can and
0:13.0	will spell for me, that they can and do want to learn.
0:17.0	I'm going to teach you how to do something new, totally new, which may feel a little bit
0:25.3	weird at first.
0:29.3	Autism can take you as a parent to a really dark place.
0:32.9	The future is really, really scary.
0:35.2	We had no real, reliable form of communication.
0:38.3	We had to just basically guess for 20 years.
0:41.1	I lost hope that I would ever be enough for them.
0:46.4	Are all the parents' foods are we trying to live wishful thinking?
0:49.1	No.
0:50.1	I mean, what's anybody going to gain by this?
0:51.9	We should be research, academic literature, focus strictly specifically on this area to
0:57.0	help promote it.
0:58.0	We should have all been presuming competence in our kids and we should have been encouraging
1:01.4	them, telling them we knew they were in there.
1:03.9	It's time to shift that whole paradigm.
1:07.7	There are 31 million non-speakers with autism in the world who are locked in a silent
1:12.2	cage.
1:13.2	My life will be dedicated to relieving them from suffering and silence and to giving them
1:17.7	voices to choose their own way.
1:20.4	Should schools choose to really work with these children's strong suit, the logistics will
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Highwire with Del Bigtree, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Highwire with Del Bigtree and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.