‘The Reason I Jump’ Film Gives a Platform to Discuss Nonverbal Autism

Have you watched this film yet?

When I heard that they were turning the best-selling book ‘The Reason I Jump’ into a full-length documentary film I was SO excited.

For those who haven’t read the book, yet, it was written in 2007 from the perspective of a nonspeaking 13-year-old boy, Naoki Higashida.

The book was later translated to English which made it rise in popularity even further! I gave it a read after seeing Jon Stewart mention it when he was the host of The Daily Show.

The 82-minute documentary looks at the lives of 5 autistic people’s families from four different continents with an emphasis on nonverbal autism.

This film can be important for our community for so many reasons.

First, we often don’t have an autistic, nonverbal protagonist portrayed in our entertainment industry.

Growing up, I was nonverbal until 2.5, diagnosed with autism at 4, and didn’t speak in complete sentences till I was 7. While I was watching this film, I imagined how my childhood would have been different if my community had a film like ‘The Reason I Jump’ as a vehicle to educate and
break down barriers and stigmas around nonverbal autism.

The only 2 films my community had/knew of was ‘Rain Man’ and ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ (although Leonardo DiCaprio in an
interview discussed that his character was not in fact on the autism spectrum.)

When I think about our history of entertainment projects, I can only think of a handful of documentaries that discussed nonverbal autism, along with The HBO Series I was the autism entertainment consultant on in, ‘Mrs. Fletcher’.

Autism is a spectrum and as we have larger conversations about representation, especially in hiring disabled actors, it’s also important for us
to have conversations on writing roles that reflect our community.

Second, It also gives us a platform to discuss autism across the globe, which I appreciate, as autism doesn’t stop in the United States.

Over 70 million people worldwide have autism and having multiple international perspectives I hope will lead to even more grassroots advocacy.

Finally, I hope this encourages our society to not dismiss those with nonverbal autism as unintelligent. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I dislike functioning labels, and more often than not, I hear people refer to those who are nonverbal as ‘low-functioning.’

Naoki’s book here is a testament that some autistics who are nonverbal, are absolutely brilliant.

If you need more evidence, research autistic adults. Carly Fleischmann and Ido Kedar are also nonverbal.

What did you think of ‘The Reason I Jump’? I would love to hear your perspective in the comments.

Written by, Kerry Magro

Dr. Kerry Magro EdD, is a professional speaker, best- selling author and autism entertainment consultant who is on the autism spectrum. Kerry is an award-winning professional speaker and best-selling author who’s on the autism spectrum. Kerry regularly speaks at schools, businesses, parent groups, nonprofit organizations and other special events on topics ranging from but not limited too disability, innovation, school bullying, the power of communication, diversity, workplace bullying, servant leadership and much more! For his efforts, Kerry has been been featured in major media and worked with amazing brands including CBS News, Inside Edition, Upworthy and Huffington Post among others. Know of a group that would like to have Kerry speak? Have them reach out to Kerry at Kerrymagro.com/contact! A version of this blog appeared on Kerrymagro.com here. Follow Kerry’s journey on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/KerrysAutismJourney/

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