TLC Autism* YouTube Channel Presents *The Language and Culture of Autism
SENSORY ISSUES - AN INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW to this video series - An ethnographic investigation - A case study.
VIDEO WORD TRANSCRIPT
with Notes by S. A. Jones c. 2025
Introduction to "J." and her Sensory Issues –WORD TRANSCRIPT TAPE 1/1 TRT: 00:10:27 _____________________________________________________________ *The Language & Culture of Autism Video Interview Series Check Out the Website: https://sites.google.com/view/tlcautism/home
SUMMARY: Subject, who is autistic, spoke three words for the first time at age nine. Still unable to speak for meaning, they began typing at age 12.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT HIGHLIGHTS (at 00:00:27)
J: I know I said something when I was nine and it was because I was thinking, ‘Leave me alone,’ and, the words just came out of nowhere.
S: Yeah.
J: And it was shocking, [ 00:44 ] because it was like telekinesis or magic because you thought something and then all of a something the sound came, and you know the sound came ‘cause the vibration came, and the sound actually kinda matched what you were thinking [ 01:04 ] and then like everybody freeze and you can tell because the kind of-- all their bones stiffen up or they like, stop— [ sound fades out, unintelligible ]
N: [ 01:16 ] Three years later J. H. began to type and started to speak again for meaning.
NOTE: This is edited footage from several interviews, with narrative in the form of written captions.
Mostly at condo lvgrm area, day, near Davie, FL. "J" with "B." (daughter); S. A. Jones filming/interviewing.
KEY: ~S=Sarah. ~ "J"=Woman being interviewed (sometimes wearing dark glasses). ~ "B"=Woman’s child. ~ "N"=Written Narrative & Titles, etc. per screen.
Note: TV sound is ‘on’, off-screen. "J.". often requested it be turned on during our interviews. Also, "B." often pants and makes sounds while we are talking.
N: J. H. Autism Interviews: Awareness & Sensory Issues
N: by S. A. Jones c. 2008
N: Introduction: J. H. was diagnosed with autism as a child. [ 00:19 ]
N: At age 9, she spoke for the first time. [ 00:27 ]
J: I know I said something when I was nine and it was because I was thinking, ‘Leave me alone,’ and, the words just came out of nowhere.
S: Yeah.
J: And it was shocking, [ 00:44 ] because it was like telekinesis or magic because you thought something and then all of a something the sound came, and you know the sound came ‘cause the vibration came, and the sound actually kinda matched what you were thinking [ 01:04 ] and then like everybody freeze and you can tell because the kind of-- all their bones stiffen up or they like, stop— [ sound fades out, unintelligible ]
N: [ 01:16 ] Three years later J. H. began to type and started to speak again for meaning.
N: [ 01:20 ] Part I: Early Perception of Self in relation to others.
J: An’ sometimes they can even underst—they understand that you understand what’s happening but you n’ many times it’s like you’re not even there, but like in a movie theatre you get caught up with what’s going on [ 01:40 ] without even that. You know you are not part of the- what’s the movie on the screen.
S: And, but what you do doesn’t effect what’s on the screen, either. [ 01:50
J: Yeah! What you do don’t effect what’s on the screen. An’ except by accident or it, if it’s happens like, like by accident, see? But most of the time you experience life like you’re sitting on the movie theatre watching it all happen around you.
NOTE: Dark screen. [ 02:09 ] Fade up to next clip with sound and light.
J: …Indian Jones on the movie screen turning to you in the audience and saying, ‘What do YOU think about that, Sarah?’ All of a sudden you just have a sense of YOUR-self as part of what’s happening, see?
S: And it would be shocking if [ OVERLAP ] --if Indiana Jones turned to me and I was watching the movie [ 02:34 ] [ OVERLAP ]
J: Yes- [ OVERLAP ]
S: And he said, ‘Sarah!’ at first I wouldn’t even think he was talking to me.
J: Because you have already gotten used to the fact that you were something separate of what was going on around you, but after a while if Indiana Jones keeps stopping and saying, ‘Sarah! What do you think? What do you think?’ And you may not know how to like, interact [ 02:56 ] with everybody on the screen, or talk to everybody on the screen, or even tell him correctly what’s going on, but at least all of a sudden you realize that somehow you’re in there with him because Indiana Jones all of a sudden says, ‘Sarah, Sarah. What do you think?’ see? [ 03:15 ]
S: And I wouldn’t even think how to get his attention. I wouldn’t even think when I’m watching the movie I should get anybody’s atten-- [ OVERLAP ]
J: Exactly. [ OVERLAP ]
S: --tion.
J: Exactly this be so. Because you’re already—You’re associating it as something happening without you. [ FADE TO BLACK. ] [ 03:30 ]
N: Part II: Sensory Chaos
J: We have to ss-- find a strategy bec- to ignore somethings. Even if you have to close your eyes to do it. To stop the information from coming in. [ OVERLAP ]
S: Mm-hm.
J: Because you’re never gonna organize the information if more information keeps coming in. [ Makes ‘ssshhh’ sound] Because then, it’s like a dam [ 03:56 ] broke and everything’s coming at you. And then it’s like, it’s like, ‘Sssss.’ Owww- one thousand seagulls screaming in your head. And it’s like all these slaps in your face going all at once. And then, an’ like, ‘Didah-didah-oooh!’ [Makes more high-pitched inarticulate sounds. ] –All of that coming in like, [Makes more high-pitched inarticulate sounds. ] And then everything, all that, like all the sides coming in [ 04:24 ] all at once. It’s like the colors hitting you, like a hit in the face and light and darkness and the contrast like, ‘Ffft! Boom! Boom!’ Almost like, like your eyes almost like burr-ning; like nauseous feeling because it’s all hitting you-- [ FADE TO BLACK. ] [ 04:46 ]
N: Part III: People as Sensory Chaos: Why J. H. prefers stationary objects.
J: Ignore the people. Because these—they are just chaos. Because they are moving all over the place. Y’get’ y’—There’s nothing stationary about, like, people unless you’re in a nursing home and people are waiting to die. [ 05:10 ] [ OVERLAP ]
S: Mm-hm.
J: They-- You have to—Like people are, are, they are too much. They are one, moving all over the place. Then they’re making sounds. They are just, they—you have to drop the—just go for something stationary. Like, you have to focus on something stationary that will keep still and let you know where the environment is. Like where something ends or begins. [ 05:40 ] [ OVERLAP ]
S: Mm-hm.
B: Making panting and loud breathing sounds off camera as A. continues to talk.
J: Like you need to know where something ends and begins and then your relation to it, see? [ OVERLAP ]
S: Yeah- [ OVERLAP ]
J: Now, you could never do that with people. And that was a problem before, when I was a kid, because I-- that was when they began talking autism because I was always chasing objects rather than people, and I wasn’t interested in people as much-- [ OVERLAP ]
S: Mm-hm. [ OVERLAP
J: -when I was younger. And they said that and they didn’t wanna—they some—I don’t know, they mentioned that one time. [ 06:09 ]
S: But the people were chaos and the objects were more calming and stable.
J: Well, the objects are like, if you want to know where you’re at. [ OVERLAP]
S: Yeah. -- [ OVERLAP ]
J: -or where something begins or ends, an object will stay in one place. [ OVERLAP ]
S: So you can figure it out-- [ OVERLAP ]
J: Yeah. I mean unless you’re moving everything’s moving, that kind of stuff. Everything’s gonna move if you move. [ FADE OUT TO BLACK. ]
N: [ 06:37 ] Part IV: Visual Chaos & Strategies for differentiating objects.
N: Lower third of screen, over ‘A.’ talking: J. H. is Recalling A Visual Challenge [ 06:34 ]
J: Like when we went to Henry’s house…
N: Lower third of screen, over ‘A.’ talking: At A Dinner At A Friend’s Home.
S: Yeah.
J: And she put, like, grapes on a Nemo plate. All—I knew that I saw—Like first I just saw a bunch of colors, bright colors. [ 07:00 ]
S: Yeah-
J: And it just looked like red-- It didn’t even look like a plate; just looked like a-bright colors. Then all of a sudden the bright colors just sort of like settled down and then there were edges. Like different colors and then they had the edges. And then you could see like, it would end in a round shape. [ 07:18 ]
N: Caption appears on lower third of screen as ‘A.’ continues to talk: J. H. Has A 10-Year-Old Daughter Diagnosed With Rett’s Syndrome & Autism.
J: Then when the colors b--you know, settle down more, you real--, I realized ‘Oh, that’s like, Nemo.’ [ 07:24 ] Like Nemo from the Walt Disney movie?
S: Yeah.
J: And there was the fish from Nemo, see?
S: And then when did you see food on the plate? After that?
J: Like if I saw that there was like pictures. Like other colors that did not correlate with the image.
S: Of the fish-- [ OVERLAP ]
J: Yeah. The fish. [ OVERLAP ]
S: --the meal.
J: Yeah. Like there were like, weird things—I picked-- I touched it. There was something on it. Well, of course I rationalized that if she put a plate, that [ 07:56 ] it turned out to be a plate, that there would--may be something on it. So I looked and I ss—I realized it was a grape after I took it out of its environment which was the-- [ OVERLAP… unintelligible ] many-colored plate.
S: Mm-hm. [ OVERLAP ]
J: So I knew that the Dolphin would not be able to see the grapes on the plate because she won’t be able to separate the plate; the grapes [ 08:18 ] from the plate.
S: So then a person could think, um, like a nor-- typical person could see a child like um, Nicollette or Lily and go, ‘Oh, they have bad motor skills, that’s why they can’t pick it up off the plate.’ But it could also be because the plate— [OVERLAP ]
J: Yes-- [ OVERLAP ]
S: --has such a fancy artwork that-- [ OVERLAP ]
J: --Yes. It gets lost on the plate. [ 08:41 ] And then if it gets lost on the plate then you can’t separate the food from the plate.
S: Yes, so-- [ OVERLAP ]
J: It just becomes it’s like a mix of colors all together. So that’s why I took the grapes off the plate, and the, the—You see, Sarah, they had a tablecloth and it was white.
S: Yes, I remember.
J: See? So the grapes on the tablecloth… You could see that they were grapes on white tablecloth. See there were grapes. So that way the Dolphin could look, aim ‘cause she—you don’t—you’ll see that she looks first. And then she aim, and then she grabs. [ 09:23 ] But sh-she’s—when she’s grabbing she’s not using her eyes at the same time. You’ll see that. [ OVERLAP ]
S: Mm-hm. [ OVERLAP ]
J: I don’t know if you see that? ‘Cause she’ll grab after. Like soon after so she could grab it.
S: So she looks to get the picture and estimate-- [ OVERLAP ]
J: Yea-ss. She looks to get the picture, and then she estimates where she has to aim to grab it.
S: Mm-hm. [ 09:43 ]
J: Because she hasn’t perfected that part quite yet. But you’ll see her do that. I mean she’ll better and better af-ter. But that was why I took it off the plate. But if th—my plates are all like one color- [ OVERLAP ]
S: Mm-hm. [ 09:58 ] [ OVERLAP ]
J: See? Where the food begins, and the plate begins, and you could see where, like, the plate ends, and the food begins. [ 10:09 ]
[ SCREEN FADES TO BLACK. ]
N: J. H. Continues To Perfect Her Ability To Speak For Meaning.
N: [ 10:17 ] She Was 39 Years Old At The Time Of These Interviews.
N: [ 10:22 ] The End.
TAPE STOPS AT 00:10:27.
FYI: THERE IS A SLIGHTLY LONGER VERSION OF THIS TAPE [ 00:10:39 ], TO ALLOW FOR MORE TIME TO READ THE CAPTIONS/NARRATION.
END OF THIS TAPE.
The Language & Culture of Autism by S. A. Jones Check Out the Website: https://sites.google.com/view/tlcautism/home