The Reason I Jump

The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism (Japanese: 自閉症の僕が跳びはねる理由～会話のできない中学生がつづる内なる心～, Hepburn: Jiheishō no Boku ga Tobihaneru Riyū ~Kaiwa no Dekinai Chūgakusei ga Tsuzuru Uchinaru Kokoro~) is an autobiography attributed to Naoki Higashida, a largely nonspeaking autistic person from Japan. It was first published in Japan in 2007. The English translation, by Keiko Yoshida and her husband, English author David Mitchell, was published in 2013.

The book alleges that its author, Higashida, learned to communicate using a version of the scientifically discredited technique of facilitated communication, which raises suspicions about the book's authorship. Psychologist Jens Hellmann said that the accounts "resemble what I would deem very close to an autistic child's parents' dream."

The book became a New York Times bestseller and a Sunday Times bestseller for hardback nonfiction in the UK. It has been translated into over 30 other languages, and inspired a play from the National Theatre of Scotland and a feature documentary. Higashida has published several other books in Japan.

Higashida was diagnosed with autism when he was five years old, and has limited verbal communication skills. With help from his mother, he is purported to have written the book using a method he calls "facilitated finger writing". This bears some resemblance to facilitated communication, a method which has been discredited as pseudoscience by organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. Some researchers have questioned the authenticity of Higashida's writings, while others have studied them with interest.

Keiko Yoshida and David Mitchell, who have a child with autism, wrote the introduction to the English-language version. The majority of the memoir is told through 58 questions Higashida and many other people dealing with autism are commonly asked, as well as interspersed sections of short prose. These sections are either memories Higashida shares or parabolic stories that relate to the themes discussed throughout the memoir. The collection ends with Higashida's short story, "I'm Right Here", which the author prefaces by saying:

While the book quickly became successful in Japan, it was not until after the English translation that it reached mainstream audiences across the world. On The Omnivore, based on British press reviews, the book received an "omniscore" of 4.5 out of 5. On its publication in July 2013 in the UK, it was serialised on BBC Radio 4 as 'Book of the Week' and went straight to Number 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list. After its publication in the US (August 2013) it was featured on The Daily Show in an interview between Jon Stewart and David Mitchell and the following day it became #1 on Amazon's bestseller list. In the interview Stewart describes the memoir as "one of the most remarkable books I've read." Other celebrities also offer their support, such as Whoopi Goldberg in her gift guide section in People's 2013 holiday issue.

In addition to traditional media outlets, the book received attention from autism advocacy groups across the globe, many, such as Autism Speaks, conducting interviews with Mitchell. Mitchell has claimed that there is video evidence showing that Hagashida is pointing to Japanese characters without any touching. However, Fein and Kamio have raised concerns about the authenticity of Higashida's communication methods, suggesting that his mother may be providing cues, as seen in a video, or that he might be independently typing previously memorized text. They further pointed out that he appeared to be providing previously memorized, general answers, such as “Why do you ask me? I think this. But everyone has an answer. You should ask your child.” Similar concerns have been raised by other researchers. Simmons, Boynton, and Landman wrote that Higashida “likely did not author the New York Times bestseller or any of the fourteen other books that were attributed to him by the age of twenty”, raising human rights concerns about the use of facilitated communication.

Michael Fitzpatrick, a doctor and parent of an autistic child, criticizes the book and its film, expressing doubts about the communication systems used and saying it is a "myth" that "within the autistic individual a fully competent person is imprisoned, requiring the liberation offered by a quasi-magical technology".

Sallie Tisdale, writing for The New York Times, said the book raised questions about autism, but also about translation and she wondered how much the work was influenced by the three adults (Higashida's mother, Yoshida, and Mitchell) involved in translating the book and their experiences as parents of autistic children. She concluded, "We have to be careful about turning what we find into what we want."

The book was adapted into a play in 2018, put on by the National Theatre of Scotland. The adaptation featured an outdoor maze designed by the Dutch collective Observatorium, and an augmented reality app was developed for the play.

The book was adapted into a feature-length documentary, directed by Jerry Rothwell. The project is a co-production of Vulcan Productions, the British Film Institute, the Idea Room, MetFilm Production, and Runaway Fridge, which was presented at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary has received positive reviews from critics. Screen Daily's Fionnula Halligan stated that "The Reason I Jump will change how you think, and how many films can say that?", while Leslie Fleperin of Hollywood Reporter said that the documentary was "a work of cinematic alchemy", and Guy Lodge of Variety commended the film for turning the original book into "an inventive, sensuous documentary worthy of its source." On 3 June 2020, Kino Lorber acquired The Reason I Jump to film in the United States. The film screened at the 2020 AFI Docs film festival.

Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8: A Young Man's Voice from the Silence of Autism is a follow-up to The Reason I Jump, written in 2015 and credited to the same author, Higashida, when he was between the ages of 18 and 22. Higashida has autism and his verbal communication skills are limited, but is said to be able to communicate by pointing at letters on an alphabet chart. Skeptics have claimed that there is no proof that Higashida can communicate independently, and that the English translation represents the ideals of author David Mitchell and Keiko Yoshida. In response, Mitchell claims that there is video evidence showing that Higashida can type independently.

The book is a collection of short chapters arranged in eight sections in which Higashida explores identity, family relationships, education, society, and his personal growth. The title comes from a Japanese proverb, 七転び八起き, which literally translates as "Fall seven times and stand up eight".

The English translation by Keiko Yoshida and her husband, author David Mitchell, was released on 11 July 2017.

Films

• Annie's Coming Out
• Autism Is a World
• Deej

• The Reason I Jump at IMDb