This video, created by 27 year old Amanda Baggs, who has Autism, was featured yesterday on the NYT Well Blog, written by Tara Parker Hope.  The video is called "In My Language," and is a compelling glimpse inside Amanda's mind, language and experience with the world.  Especially interesting is her way of communicating through all of her senses with her immediate environment.  In the first three minutes of the video, we see her rocking back and forth, waving paper in the air, burying her face in a book, flapping her hands in the air, and more.  She goes on, in the second half of the video, to explain eloquently  (via computerized voice) how her actions are communicative.  Here is an excerpt from the  video:

"My language is not about designing words or even visual symbols for people to interpret. It is about being in a constant conversation with every aspect of my environment, reacting physically to all parts of my surroundings.

Far from being purposeless, the way that I move is an ongoing response to what is around me….The way I naturally think and respond to things looks and feels so different from standard concepts or even visualization that some people do not consider it thought at all. But it is a way of thinking in its own right."

To read the blog and reader comments, click here. 

To read the WIRED article about Amanda, click here.