The Day I Started Typing

I could not believe my thinking could come alive in words for others to see.

The first time I typed I was just a new teenager. I never had typing before and had never met Lisa before. My mom’s friend told her to bring me for typing and she did.

I did not know exactly what I was going to be doing and my anxiety was very high.

I was not behaving well in that time and many people were afraid of me because I might hurt them. I was not sure if Lisa would like me or not and that made my anxiety worse.

Lisa stayed calm even when I was not calm. She gave me strong belief in myself that I could do it. I was able to type and I could not believe my thinking could come alive in words for others to see.

It was not easy to behave because my reaction to stress was behaving poorly. I would get mad at myself for acting out and I had fear that Lisa would not want to ever work with me anymore. Lisa was not fearful of me and I started to calm down enough to type my thinking. 

It is always hard for me to not get upset when I am made to do things that are difficult for me.

I never thought I would ever have independent typing because each step towards more independent would bring great stress and big behaviors but now I have made it to independent typing and I feel pride in making it to this point in my typing.

It took many years to be able to do it and much struggle but I am proud of being able to do it with no behaviors even though independent typing tests my thinking and creates a strong desire to get upset I now know the struggle is worth the outcome.

~Sagarika Vaidya

Typing has opened up my world

I do remember when I first started typing. I believe I was eight years old still living in our old house we were going to an old office by a lake and Lisa was my teacher.

It was incredible that I was able communicate with others but also very frustrating because my body or fingers would not do what I wanted them to do. It has taken many years of practice patience and determination to be a good typer.

Typing has opened up my world.  Before I was typing daily I felt totally trapped not being able to tell anyone I was hurt, scared, sad or happy or if i needed something or someone I now can.

It is very hard and scary not being able to share what is in your head and heart also when people hurt me I did not have way to tell anyone.

I am so happy to have my mom she is always looking for ways I can work on my typing with people like me. I would tell all typers to keep practicing it gets tiring and frustrating at times but it will all work out in due time and it will be life changing.

I am not yet typing all on own but I am getting close and so will you. do not give up. my mom and dad are always cheering me on.

~Brian Collins

My typing teacher started with presuming i was intelligent

You (my typing teacher) started with presuming i was intelligent that made purposeful typing much easier.  Finding really good polite teachers like maria and lisa typing to communicate made my intelligent voice be heard. 

The purposeful movements helped me find and pick letters i needed to really communicate my thoughts.

Hope you really presume intelligence in people with autism. Too many individuals with autism have poor motor in poking the letters to type independently. 

Being in chat group is really terrific. Some of my peers get together and type our thinking and play games. having people that really understand us is motivating. Really go to be there for my peer friendships. 

Every day is getting better. thank you for hearing my voice.

~William Britton

With typing I feel like my heart is relieved from aches and pains from not telling the world my deepest thoughts and how smart I truly am

My world has changed dramatically since I started my typing journey.

I have Apraxia so its hard to get the words out of my head but with typing I feel like my heart is relieved from aches and pains from not telling the world my deepest thoughts and how smart I truly am. I am so happy that I can try to accomplish my goals of becoming a writer through my years of poetry and my intelligence with academics.

I feel like I am able to outsmart everyone who thought I couldn’t do anything but work at a 5 year old level.

I want to thank my mom and dad for pursuing typing with me so that I can help others who need to communicate with the outside world and feel like there is a confident place in themselves.

I love my passion to type and my extreme confidence to blow this world by storm.

~Tiffany Broskoskie

#ExceptionalMinds #WeAreInHere #NonspeakingAutism #NonSpeakingDoesNotEqualNonThinking