A Vibrant Mind Hidden In Plain Sight
Martin Pistorius, author of the New York Times best-seller, Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body delivers one of the most impressive and thought provoking Ted Talks ever. Martin Pistorius' story serves as an urgent call to action to change our assumptions about verbal speech and intellectual capacity. It also reinforces the absolute necessity to treat each human with dignity and respect. How many people are waiting right now for someone to acknowledge their means of communication? How many are waiting for someone to talk to them respectfully and then to listen and watch for subtle movements-
Five Reasons You Need to Read ‘Ghost Boy’ by Martin Pistorius
For over ten years Martin Pistorius was trapped in his own body, fully cognizant, but unable to speak or move. He was surrounded by people who believed he was incapable of thinking and tried desperately to get just one person to notice. His story serves as a wake-up call for all of us to drastically change our assumptions about speech and intellectual capacity as well as the need to radically reform expectations and treatment of people with complex communication needs.
People With Locked-In Syndrome Happier Than We Assumed
Locked-in syndrome leaves people awake and aware, but unlikely able to move or talk. But does it leave them unhappy? The largest study of locked-in syndrome to date says, "Not necessarily." Locked-in syndrome is caused by major brain injury, often from some sort of accident. People that have locked-in syndrome are usually totally paralyzed and move their eyes to communicate. It sounds like a very difficult existence, but a "surprising number" of people in the study reported being happy in spite of their disabilities. Researcher Dr. Steven Laureys of Belgium's University of Liege and his colleagues sent a survey to
With mind-reading speller, free-for-all conversations that are silent and still
Researchers have come up with a device that may enable people who are completely unable to speak or move at all to nevertheless manage unscripted back-and-forth conversation. The key to such silent and still communication is the first real-time, brain-sc
