Kim johnson brief biography for gawith villa
Jill Johnson (Kim's Mother)
12 August 2005
Kim was born in the spring of 1964 and developed as a delightful baby for some 15 months, when the regression period of Rett Syndrome crept upon her. She lost her babbling and her motor skills over the next few years, and became withdrawn and often miserable with frequent periods of screaming and head banging. She emerged from withdrawal a changed person, and was declared, “profoundly retarded”, whatever that meant. No one ever explained.
When she was 22, Kim was shown how to point to words and then letters on visiting the DEAL Communication Centre, and was able to demonstrate to her therapists that she was an intelligent woman who was able to read, and type sentences. As she wrote in “Declaration to the Judicial Establishment” for her VCE English writing folio in 1995:
“A chain of exciting people gave me valuable skills including communication. Having lived a few years in a government institution without being able to exert kinetic control, great changes occurred when hidden denizens of language were revealed through facilitated communication.
Drastic general belated educating began, accusers notwithstanding. Big beginnings were quickly followed by a freer lifestyle. I plan to study a different subject each year.
Paucity of able therapists made it difficult to query my living situation until Rosemary Crossley plACEd facilitated communication (FC) at hand....Lighter deficit opened gates to realisable goals, each person facing questioning about my intelligence. Impatient therapists tried estimating my intelligence using psychological methods designed for babies. Tasks were usually implicitly insulting.
Caught in a fiery attack new initiatives wallowed, bringing a happy period to an end. Education authorities halted teachers' attempts to greatly enhance my life by foiling efforts to study FC with Rosemary. Government actions denied me communication at school by forbidding staff to learn FC .....
Train educators for goal of teaching individually. Clear instances effect positive nexus between educators and FC users.”
In contrast, staff at the TAFE Colleges she attended were overwhelmingly supportive of Kim's efforts, believing disabled people should have the opportunity.