Eileen Miller: The Girl Who Spoke with Pictures

Excerpt

Prodigious ability in any form has always drawn our attention, let alone in someone with the social and communication deficits accompanying autism. However, as fascinating as savants may be, as much as we may be drawn to the unusual, the abnormal, and rare, that is not what this book is about. The Girl Who Spoke with Pictures, by Eileen Miller, is about an autistic woman with a considerable talent in art. But any reader will quickly realize that this book is not just a partial biography of the early life of an autistic savant or an exhibition of this young woman’s work simply to showcase her ability. Kim Miller’s work, and ultimately this book, is about communication. The reader soon realizes that the author/mother is not writing this book to brag; instead it is the story of how an autistic person has trained her considerable artistic talent to be her voice and how that has allowed her an alternate avenue to connect with the world and the people around her in ways that words and gestures could not. …