The Reason I Jump : One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism by Naoki Higashida, translated by KA Yoshida & David Mitchell (Scepter)

I recently read a news article that I found to be unbelievable. However, after checking a number of different sources, it is no falsehood that the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services once again made a speech which drew the anger of many citizens who listened to it. 

He said and I quote, “Autism destroys families.”. He went on to say, “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go out on a date, many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”. This is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever heard a government official say. 

Unfortunately, it’s not surprising, as these falsehoods were said by a known conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer. It’s a mystery why the current President of the United States appointed someone who is totally unqualified for the position. In my humble opinion, I find Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to be an embarrassment to the Kennedy family legacy. 

I desperately wish to send R.F.K. Jr. this book. The Reason I Jump was written by Naoki Higashida. It is the account of “One boy’s voice from the silence of autism”. Higashida was only thirteen years old when he wrote this book. He tells his readers he has learned a method to communicate via writing. 

The book was originally published in the Japanese language with the title 自閉症の僕が跳びはねる理由 (Jiheisho no Boku ga Tobi Haneru Ryu) in 2007 by Escor. The direct translation of the title would be Why the Autistic Me Jumps. The English version was translated by KA Yoshida and David Mitchell who have a close association with autism as their son was diagnosed with the condition when he was three years old. 

Higashida tells his readers that he learned how to communicate via writing by using the “Alphabet Grid”, a method used for non-vocal communication. Higashida says, “You might think that speech is the only way to get your points and intentions across, but there is another way to say what you want without using the vocal nervous system”. 

Higashida gives normal people (people who don’t suffer from autism), an inside look at how an autistic person thinks and why they do things the way they do. He uses a question and answer format to try to answer many of the more common questions people have about autism and what it’s like to be autistic. 

At the end of the book, Higashida includes a short story he wrote titled I’m Right Here. It is an inspirational story about a special needs boy who is killed in a car accident but doesn’t know that he’s dead. However, when he sees his mother suffering because of his accident, he feels even more frustrated because there isn’t anything he can do to help his mother. I believe the story is a metaphor for his own condition. There are things he wants to say and wants to do but his condition makes him unable to do those things. 

There are also criticisms about the book. There are many in the scientific community who question the authenticity of authorship. They cite that Higashida’s use of a “facilitated finger writing” shows remarkable similarities to facilitate communication which was discredited as a pseudoscience by the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Psychological Communication. However, Mitchell is adamant that the book was written by Higashida and says there is video proof that Higashida pointed to the characters on his own to write the book. 

There is still an ongoing debate about who actually wrote the book. However, even surrounding the controversy, it sheds light on one of the most misunderstood conditions affecting millions of people—autism. Whether you believe in its validity or not shouldn’t matter. You can browse the Internet and you will find that there are a lot of autistic people who are fully functional in “normal society”. ~Ernie Hoyt