Motivation and Validation for People Who Cannot Speak: Disney+’s New Movie, Out of My Mind
Recently, I watched a new movie on Disney+ called Out of My Mind, and it really hit home. The movie, about a mostly nonverbal sixth-grade girl with cerebral palsy, brought up so many memories (good and bad) of my early career as a Speech Language Pathologist.
But more than that, it delivered a powerful message that I think any nonverbal adult or child—or their caregivers, for that matter—needs to hear. That’s why I decided to talk a bit about the movie and my reactions to it in this month’s blog post.
A Rare Movie Highlighting the Importance of Communication for Those Who Can’t Speak
The movie Out of My Mind is based on the 2010 young adult novel of the same name by Sharon M. Draper.
The movie stars Phoebe-Rae Taylor, who has cerebral palsy but is not nonverbal in real life, in her screen debut as Melody Brooks. Other actors in lead roles include Rosemarie DeWitt, Luke Kirby, and Judith Light. Jennifer Aniston, who is Melody’s favorite actress, provides the voice-over of Melody’s inner thoughts.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2024, where it received two standing ovations. It was released on Disney+ in November 2024 and has since received general acclaim, with 100% of critics’ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes being positive, scoring an average rating of 7.6 out of 10.
The film is set in 2002, at a time when kids with cerebral palsy and other special needs were just beginning to be mainstreamed into regular ed classrooms. At the beginning of the movie, Melody has spent her entire school career in a self-contained special ed classroom with the same teacher for seven years.
Her parents know how smart she is. She watches science shows on TV and listens to audiobooks non-stop. In fact, she appears to have a photographic memory and is clearly capable of handling greater academic challenges, but the system seems to be rigged against her.
That all changes when Melody’s parents, Chuck and Diane, meet Dr. Katherine Ray, a post-doctoral fellow with a Ph.D. in education who starts a pilot program in Melody’s school to mainstream some of the special ed students into the regular classroom.
At first, Diane is afraid that Melody will be bullied and wants her to remain in the special ed classroom to keep her “safe.” Chuck disagrees and eventually convinces Diane to sign off on Melody joining the program.
But the real turning point of the movie happens when Chuck and Diane decide to get Melody an assistive technology device called a Medi-Talker. They have to fight medical authorities, battle red tape, and pay an exorbitant $17,000 price tag in order to provide the device to Melody.
This AAC device allows Melody to touch buttons and have the device speak pre-recorded phrases, and it also allows her to use its text-to-speech capability to vocalize words Melody types on the screen.
Armed with her new Medi-Talker, Melody is sent to Mr. Demming’s History class, where she is met with stares and rude comments from the regular ed students and skepticism from Mr. Demming, who clearly underestimates her ability.
In fact, the History teacher is a real jerk to Melody. He showed no compassion for her, and it was clear that his negative attitude toward Melody came from the fact that it wasn’t all easy-peasy to teach special needs kids and he didn’t want to bothered to put out the extra effort—and he was considered one of the “good” teachers in the school!
I won’t give away the rest of the plot and ruin the movie for you. I’ll just say that there’s friends made and lost, a big subplot that involves Melody making the team and competing in a Whiz Kids (similar to Quiz Bowl) competition, someone getting run over by a car, and a cliffhanger moment where we find out if Melody will be allowed to remain in the regular ed classroom.
It’s a real emotional roller coaster and tear-jerker, and I found it inspiring, not the least because it shows how much more capable many nonverbal are if given the opportunity.
For more details about the movie, you can check out the Wikipedia article here.
The Other Star of the Movie: Augmentative and Alternative Communication
As I reflect back on the movie after watching it, I realize that there were actually two stars. One was Phoebe-Rae Taylor, of course, who was fantastic. But the other star was the AAC device itself.
Why do I say that? Well, if you compare Melody’s life before the device to her life after the device, it’s a complete 180. She goes from someone whose voice is locked up inside her head to someone who not only has a lot to say, but thanks to the device, now has the ability to say it.
It blows me away how a single electronic device can totally change someone’s life and allow them to reach their full potential.
Then and Now: What’s Changed and What’s Still the Same
As I think back over my career as a Speech Language Pathologist, my memories cover the full range, from two decades before the time in which the movie is set to two decades after that time.
As a therapist, when I was working with children in the schools back in the 1980’s, children with cerebral palsy didn’t even attend “regular” school. They went to a state-run school where kids with disabilities went.
By 2010, when the book was written, things had changed greatly for the better. Not only had mainstreaming finally taken hold to become the default practice in most schools, but AAC devices and apps have continued to improve, giving a voice to those who previously were nonverbal (more on that in a minute).
Of course, not everything has changed for the better. Even after mainstreaming became a regular practice, it was still often a frustrating battle, working with families as they jumped through hoops to get the equipment their kids needed, such as AAC. It often took well over a year! The struggle the Brooks family had to go through to get Melody her device was very realistic, as I’ve witnessed that struggle firsthand many times.
Plus, while having kids with special needs in a regular ed setting is more accepted to a degree today, the negative attitudes and behavior of “normal” kids toward “special needs” kids is often still a problem.
And while there are more opportunities in place now for parents to stand up for the educational needs of their kids with special needs, it’s still disheartening to see how often school personnel doubt the parents’ knowledge of and experience with their children’s needs and capabilities. I wish I could say that the unsupportive attitude of the school in the movie is an outlier, but in my experience, it’s still very common.
Apps for People Who Can’t Speak
If you’ve been a regular reader of this blog, you already know my story. It was my often-frustrating experience of working with individuals who had lost their ability to communicate that led me to create the APP2Speak app, which I honestly believe is one of the best AAC apps on the market today.
APP2Speak and other modern AAC apps pick up where old, bulky AAC devices like the Medi-Talker shown in the movie leave off. With today’s apps, someone like Melody—or anyone who has lost their ability to speak due to a stroke, a brain injury, a degenerative disease, or any other cause—can use a small, portable device like a smartphone or iPad and have all the functionality (and more) of the old-style AAC devices.
Today, if someone like Melody was in need of a way to communicate with others, their parents wouldn’t have to spend a year jumping through hoops and cutting red tape to get them a device. And they wouldn’t have to put a second mortgage on their house to pay for it, either.
They could simply go to our website, click the “Buy Now” button (or go straight to the Apple Store), and for the price of a few dollars, they could have all the new-found freedom of communication that Melody discovered in the movie.
So, if you’re reading this and you’re someone who has lost the ability to speak but you have lots to say (like Melody)—or, if you’re a friend, loved one, or caregiver for such a person—don’t wait any longer to see how modern AAC apps like APP2Speak can change a life in a matter of minutes.
Simply reach out to us to set up a free demonstration. We’d love to show you how APP2Speak can make a difference in your life or the life of your loved one!