Video interview of JB and Jameson Handley on Unbreaking Science
Book Review
by Bernadette Pajer
I had the honor and privilege of reading an advanced copy of UNDERESTIMATED. I didn’t think anything could make me forget about the current chaos we are living in — but this book, this journey, did. In fact, this book puts everything in perspective.
There is nothing more important than our children.
Beginning in December 2019, when the rest of the world was beginning to lock down, Jamison “Jamie” Handley began the journey of being unlocked. While fear and hiding and anxiety swept the world, Jamie stepped into a world of joy and communication and freedom for the first time in his life.
I read the book in one sitting, with tears rolling and grinning ear-to-ear.This book is about love, and hope, and kindness, and forgiveness. It is about never giving up on anyone, and treating everyone with respect and kindness.
Right now, half of the U.S. thinks the other half is crazy. But we are judging each other with a wall between us, trapped inside our own perspectives. We cannot hear each other. We cannot hear or see the love and hopes and intelligence in others with different perspectives and it is causing raging meltdowns.
The inability to communicate and to feel understood is the must frustrating emotion there is. We look at “others” and don’t understand them and so label them crazy, stupid, dangerous. The world judged Jamie Handley with labels, too. Retarded, cognitively impaired, low-functioning, volatile. But he was just a boy with a brilliant mind, a loving heart, understanding everything —everything — happening around him and unable to say so. Until now.
This book is not just the journey of one young man, it is a guidebook on how to be hopeful and decent humans, not labeling each other but always seeking ways to communicate.
The book is available for pre-order HERE.
Learn about Spelling to Communicate (S2C) HERE.
For those with nonverbal autism, discovering S2C is like the life-changing moment Helen Keller experienced when her teacher placed her hand under flowing water and drew a “W” on her palm. Only with S2C, it is not nonverbal individuals who have their minds opened—it is the teacher, the parent, the world. Suddenly we can understand them.
