Recovering Ruffin
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
In 1994, Ruffin White was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder; his case was so severe that his neurologist predicted that he would never speak, hold a job, or be able to live independently. With scant professional resources available in Ruffin's rural Iowa town, his single mother, Mary Jane White, was forced to be creative in order to get Ruffin treatment, even recruiting the local community to assist in Applied Behavior Analysis therapy, an evidence-based behavioral therapy focused on the science of learning and behavior. Today, Ruffin is about to graduate from UCSD with a PhD in Robotics. RECOVERING RUFFIN is a documentary short that chronicles Ruffin's "recovery" from Autism while lending credence to the axiom "It takes a village to raise a child."
Educational Media Reviews Online | Bradley Long, Embedded Health Sciences Librarian, Pennsylvania State University
"Recovering Ruffin serves well as supplemental video for autism spectrum disorder-related coursework. It especially serves well as a case report of an individual who has successfully completed applied behavior analysis (ABA)."
Mark Jonathan Harris, Academy-Award winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and novelist
“RECOVERING RUFFIN is a powerful example of the importance and early detection and treatment of autism...[an] affecting testimony to a mother’s love, dedication, and resourcefulness.”
Citation
Main credits
Krauland, Katy (film director)
Krauland, Katy (film producer)
Wood, Kelby (film producer)
Wood, Kelby (director of photography)
Wood, Kelby (editor of moving image work)
White, Ruffin (on-screen participant)
White, Mary Jane (on-screen participant)
Kung, Evelyn (on-screen participant)
Other credits
Filmed and edited by Kelby Wood; original music by John Piscitello.
Distributor subjects
Autism Studies; Disability Studies; Psychology; TherapyKeywords
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.961
Okay.
00:00:05.463 --> 00:00:08.091
Forgot to take the lens cap off.
00:00:08.883 --> 00:00:09.883
Yes.
00:00:10.593 --> 00:00:11.594
Here\'s that Ruffin.
00:00:12.512 --> 00:00:16.725
It\'s November the 4th of 1991.
00:00:18.101 --> 00:00:20.186
He\'s playing in his crib.
00:00:20.562 --> 00:00:24.107
We\'ve been trying to use the video camera but
we couldn\'t figure out why it didn\'t work.
00:00:24.482 --> 00:00:26.818
Then we figured out the
batteries weren\'t charged.
00:00:27.902 --> 00:00:30.238
So last night I charged up the battery.
00:00:30.864 --> 00:00:35.618
And lo and behold it works.
Lo and behold it works.
00:00:35.869 --> 00:00:37.829
Didn\'t it?
Yes it does.
00:00:38.455 --> 00:00:40.248
You laugh at that old camera.
00:00:43.001 --> 00:00:44.627
Want to say night-night?
00:00:46.129 --> 00:00:47.589
My name is Box Bot.
00:00:48.631 --> 00:00:52.635
I\'m a robot working here at the
Contextual Robotics Institute.
00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:54.345
May I ask what is your name?
00:00:55.263 --> 00:00:56.263
Ruffin.
00:00:56.389 --> 00:00:59.350
- I just pulled it off the dock.
- I\'m sorry but I didn\'t hear you.
00:00:59.642 --> 00:01:00.685
What is your name?
00:01:01.561 --> 00:01:02.561
Ruffin.
00:01:02.771 --> 00:01:07.442
So I just pulled it off the dock and so the rest
of the services aren\'t necessarily running.
00:01:07.984 --> 00:01:11.780
- But I just wanted to show you-
- Good afternoon, may name is Box Bot.
00:01:12.155 --> 00:01:16.117
I\'m a robot working here at the
Contextual Robotics Institute.
00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:18.161
May I ask what is your name?
00:01:18.369 --> 00:01:19.370
My name is Ruffin White.
00:01:20.246 --> 00:01:22.916
I\'m a graduate researcher at UC San Diego.
00:01:23.166 --> 00:01:24.667
I study robotics.
00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:27.378
Today we\'re touring around my robotics lab.
00:01:29.589 --> 00:01:31.632
Oh good. There\'s no one here
so we won\'t disturb anyone.
00:01:31.633 --> 00:01:33.760
Here\'s the Fetch Robotics platform.
00:01:34.219 --> 00:01:37.679
This is their research platform and
they\'re a logistics robotics company.
00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.723
They target warehouse development.
00:01:39.724 --> 00:01:42.142
We\'re participating in the
Robo-Cup competition.
00:01:42.143 --> 00:01:48.607
Sort of a worldwide university competition on how
you can develop robots for home assisted tasks.
00:01:48.608 --> 00:01:52.569
Kind of geared to assisted living
or tending to the elderly.
00:01:52.570 --> 00:01:55.572
I don\'t know if someone
left it charged or not.
00:01:55.573 --> 00:01:56.282
Nope.
00:01:56.283 --> 00:02:03.664
In the area of social robots when you have general
robots that are meant to improve your mental health.
00:02:03.665 --> 00:02:05.250
Kind of an interesting domain.
00:02:05.583 --> 00:02:07.418
But the cat is kind of adorable.
00:02:08.461 --> 00:02:09.901
I had lots of pets when I was young.
00:02:12.298 --> 00:02:14.759
You have to be a little careful honey.
00:02:16.803 --> 00:02:18.762
My name is Mary Jane White.
00:02:18.763 --> 00:02:22.058
I am a retired lawyer and Ruffin\'s mom.
00:02:22.725 --> 00:02:23.726
It won\'t be long.
00:02:25.395 --> 00:02:27.272
You\'ll be walking and running.
00:02:28.815 --> 00:02:29.816
Yes.
00:02:31.317 --> 00:02:33.153
Then how will I keep up with you?
00:02:33.820 --> 00:02:39.867
I was too young to remember most of her
activity but a single parent raising me,
00:02:39.868 --> 00:02:41.703
sometimes that would get stressful for her.
00:02:41.870 --> 00:02:45.999
But I like to think that whenever she got too
stressed that I was there to comfort her.
00:02:46.708 --> 00:02:54.708
At about two and a half, they did notice that gross motor and fine motor
development was running ahead of his social and language development,
00:02:57.260 --> 00:02:58.595
maybe by 6 months.
00:02:58.928 --> 00:03:06.928
My mother was enough disturbed about his babbling in his
crib, that she made a recording in April of those noises.
00:03:07.896 --> 00:03:11.231
And then I made a video tape in May.
00:03:11.232 --> 00:03:19.232
And I wanted the neurologist to see that film because I
didn\'t think Ruffin would behave that way in a new place.
00:03:21.034 --> 00:03:22.034
Cut out.
00:03:22.493 --> 00:03:23.493
Cut out.
00:03:25.580 --> 00:03:26.581
Cut out.
00:03:27.165 --> 00:03:28.166
Cut out.
00:03:28.499 --> 00:03:33.420
My neurologist placed Ruffin in the place where
he thought he found him on the spectrum.
00:03:33.421 --> 00:03:34.380
But it was very clear.
00:03:34.381 --> 00:03:36.716
The word he gave me was Autism.
00:03:37.175 --> 00:03:40.887
And I was given to understand that
Ruffin would probably not speak.
00:03:41.012 --> 00:03:44.349
It was likely that he would
never finish school.
00:03:45.058 --> 00:03:50.688
It was likely he would never work
productively outside of a sheltered workshop.
00:03:51.105 --> 00:03:59.030
And that he would probably never be likely to
marry and he would not be aware that I loved him.
00:03:59.989 --> 00:04:01.407
That was really pretty grim.
00:04:03.117 --> 00:04:05.328
Say hi. Say hi to your grandma.
00:04:05.995 --> 00:04:07.035
Can you say, \"Hi grandma?\"
00:04:08.498 --> 00:04:09.749
Say, \"Hi grandma.\"
00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:12.000
Can you do that?
00:04:12.001 --> 00:04:13.710
Oh you look so sick.
00:04:13.711 --> 00:04:19.967
The neurologist had told me that if I had
as much as 5 million dollars to invest
00:04:19.968 --> 00:04:26.099
for Ruffin\'s lifetime care that I should
do that right now while he was three.
00:04:28.142 --> 00:04:30.061
You don\'t like mommy having the camera?
00:04:30.603 --> 00:04:31.354
What\'ve you got?
00:04:31.521 --> 00:04:32.522
What\'ve you got?
00:04:32.730 --> 00:04:33.731
Thank you.
00:04:33.898 --> 00:04:37.526
He was diagnosed July 12th, 1994.
00:04:37.527 --> 00:04:43.824
And our first workshop was
November 4th and 5th.
00:04:43.825 --> 00:04:46.785
So we were pretty quick
moving into treatment.
00:04:46.786 --> 00:04:51.331
Evelyn Kung came out from Doreen
Granpeesheh\'s group CARD.
00:04:51.332 --> 00:04:56.211
I think she arrived just ahead of
a sleet storm to our little town
00:04:56.212 --> 00:05:00.173
which is about 4,000-5,000
people at the time.
00:05:00.174 --> 00:05:03.386
She was pretty brave to come.
00:05:05.346 --> 00:05:12.895
Okay now, is there a technique, since you did that
and many children do that, what\'s the physical-
00:05:14.188 --> 00:05:16.273
- Manipulation?
- Manipulation.
00:05:16.274 --> 00:05:18.775
I take it and I basically just pull it.
00:05:18.776 --> 00:05:23.322
Usually, you can just pull it without anything and
then I just put it away until they calm down.
00:05:23.323 --> 00:05:25.003
Like I\'ll hide it until they can\'t see it.
00:05:25.825 --> 00:05:29.494
And if they start getting too,
riled, I make them sit good.
00:05:29.495 --> 00:05:31.581
I go back to just-
Move the chair and just sit.
00:05:33.791 --> 00:05:38.462
Move the chair until they just
sit until they calm down.
00:05:38.463 --> 00:05:41.048
So ABA is Applied Behavioral Analysis.
00:05:41.049 --> 00:05:43.800
Basically when a child comes
in and starts ABA
00:05:43.801 --> 00:05:46.346
it\'s based on a series
of consequences
00:05:46.804 --> 00:05:53.560
So the idea is that if a child does something and
you want it to be done more or again you reward it.
00:05:53.561 --> 00:06:01.526
And if you don\'t want the child to engage in a behavior
again, you basically do not reward it and it will go away.
00:06:01.527 --> 00:06:02.528
Touch B.
00:06:03.446 --> 00:06:06.240
No. Try again. Touch B.
00:06:06.783 --> 00:06:08.826
Good boy.
00:06:09.077 --> 00:06:11.120
Sit good. Come on sit nicely.
00:06:11.954 --> 00:06:15.123
Thank you, nice sitting.
00:06:15.124 --> 00:06:16.124
Touch B.
00:06:17.001 --> 00:06:17.710
B.
00:06:17.919 --> 00:06:20.337
Wow!
00:06:20.338 --> 00:06:24.007
I do recall being planted
in front of the table.
00:06:24.008 --> 00:06:26.094
About half a foot tall
or something like that.
00:06:26.677 --> 00:06:30.680
All this kind of yellow and red plastic.
00:06:30.681 --> 00:06:37.479
And then being presented with a host of visual cards and
they all have different actions or people or objects.
00:06:37.480 --> 00:06:43.193
And then I would be asked to state what the verb
was or what the noun that the card represented.
00:06:43.194 --> 00:06:49.950
I also had photos of family members or faces
that I would try to recollect the names.
00:06:49.951 --> 00:06:56.039
It would be Donna sitting in front
of the table being very patient.
00:06:56.040 --> 00:06:59.042
I had a short temper, short attention span.
00:06:59.043 --> 00:07:01.087
I would get very tired quickly.
00:07:01.295 --> 00:07:06.175
Very repetitive and it would be almost
every day I would have to do this.
00:07:07.510 --> 00:07:12.014
Good sitting.
00:07:12.306 --> 00:07:13.975
Mommy!
00:07:14.517 --> 00:07:16.268
Mommy come here!
00:07:16.269 --> 00:07:17.352
Good sitting.
00:07:17.353 --> 00:07:18.354
Mommy come here!
00:07:21.274 --> 00:07:21.899
Mom!
00:07:22.108 --> 00:07:24.192
[Cheering]
00:07:24.193 --> 00:07:32.193
I was able to watch that without being too upset with him
or for him because I had had the opportunity to read
00:07:35.079 --> 00:07:39.124
Dorothy Beavers\' book it\'s called
Autism Nightmare Without End.
00:07:39.125 --> 00:07:47.125
It\'s a very salutary story that puts you into appropriate panic that
this is what\'s going to happen to your child without treatment.
00:07:48.885 --> 00:07:51.178
It is not a pretty picture.
00:07:51.179 --> 00:07:53.138
Good talking. Say bite.
00:07:53.139 --> 00:07:54.139
Bite.
00:07:54.432 --> 00:07:56.725
Good talking. Say earrings.
00:07:56.726 --> 00:07:57.685
Earrings.
00:07:57.686 --> 00:07:59.394
Good talking.
Look at me Ruffin.
00:07:59.395 --> 00:08:00.395
Good.
00:08:01.022 --> 00:08:09.022
What was interesting about Ruffin\'s case is that it\'s a town of
4,000-5,000 so who do you have to choose from to be the therapists
00:08:09.489 --> 00:08:13.659
and it basically became all
of Mary Jane\'s neighbors.
00:08:13.826 --> 00:08:15.577
Touch the chipmunk.
00:08:15.578 --> 00:08:18.414
Good.
00:08:22.585 --> 00:08:24.753
Touch the chipmunk.
00:08:24.754 --> 00:08:27.590
Good job.
00:08:28.382 --> 00:08:31.760
Even though it might have been frustrating
at the time it was beneficial.
00:08:31.761 --> 00:08:38.684
I think everyone who is subject to this kind of
difficulty should readily have access to this treatment.
00:08:39.977 --> 00:08:41.102
Say \"Hi Mom\"
00:08:41.103 --> 00:08:42.104
Hi Mom.
00:08:42.647 --> 00:08:43.980
Say, \"I\'m going to work now.\"
00:08:43.981 --> 00:08:45.815
I\'m going to work now.
00:08:45.816 --> 00:08:47.818
Good job. Okay let\'s work.
00:08:48.611 --> 00:08:49.612
Touch small.
00:08:50.112 --> 00:08:51.112
Small.
00:08:51.113 --> 00:08:52.281
Oh good job.
00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:53.741
Touch large.
00:08:54.283 --> 00:08:55.952
- Large.
- No.
00:08:57.787 --> 00:08:59.204
Touch large.
00:08:59.205 --> 00:09:00.081
Large.
00:09:00.082 --> 00:09:01.749
Oh good working.
00:09:02.124 --> 00:09:03.376
Touch medium.
00:09:04.085 --> 00:09:05.544
Medium.
00:09:05.545 --> 00:09:07.213
Very good.
00:09:07.296 --> 00:09:14.302
ABA access is still very limited so using the resources
that you have and there\'s a lot of kids who have been
00:09:14.303 --> 00:09:21.101
able to go all the way and become fully independent
human beings by running their own programs.
00:09:21.102 --> 00:09:27.108
And I think that\'s encouraging instead of
just depending on professionals to do it all.
00:09:27.650 --> 00:09:28.858
Ruffin\'s a little seed.
00:09:28.859 --> 00:09:30.069
Okay be a little seed.
00:09:30.611 --> 00:09:31.612
What happens?
00:09:33.406 --> 00:09:34.574
You poked out.
00:09:35.157 --> 00:09:37.201
Then what happens next?
00:09:38.369 --> 00:09:40.538
Show us you growing.
00:09:42.081 --> 00:09:43.082
Wow.
00:09:43.416 --> 00:09:44.625
Here he comes up!
00:09:45.084 --> 00:09:48.587
Oh look he\'s grown tall!
00:09:48.588 --> 00:09:53.049
I had a camera pointed at me for a
long time when I was recovering.
00:09:53.050 --> 00:09:56.721
I feel like I think my entire
recovery is pretty well documented.
00:10:04.812 --> 00:10:12.812
How do you think you have changed since you stopped
having therapy with Donna and Evelyn and the others?
00:10:16.407 --> 00:10:24.407
I think after that I was cruising nicely
with everyone else in my classes.
00:10:26.417 --> 00:10:28.169
I was pretty normal.
00:10:30.129 --> 00:10:38.129
Didn\'t have any disadvantages besides spelling but in 5th grade they
dropped spelling then I was just at home doing the spelling thing
00:10:41.807 --> 00:10:44.018
where I can just right
click with a computer.
00:10:44.060 --> 00:10:52.060
The funny thing is I still have a bit of stage fright, public speaking that
can be kind of nerve-racking when you\'re talking to a whole swath of people.
00:10:54.278 --> 00:10:57.864
Hello, my name is Ruffin and this
is my good colleague Gianluca
00:10:57.865 --> 00:11:04.622
and today we\'re going to give you a quick
overview of the current developments in SROS.
00:11:04.997 --> 00:11:05.581
Alright.
00:11:05.790 --> 00:11:11.961
To try and get over that I\'ve tried to put myself
in the position where I had to give large talks.
00:11:11.962 --> 00:11:15.758
I think same with everything,
practice makes perfect.
00:11:16.634 --> 00:11:17.635
Thank you very much.
00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:27.679
I mean it\'s a proof that the kind of things that we expected
of the treatment are achievable and they worked in this case.
00:11:31.524 --> 00:11:35.820
I know from representing many
families of children with Autism
00:11:36.737 --> 00:11:38.989
that it does not always work.
00:11:39.865 --> 00:11:42.034
We were very lucky.
00:11:42.910 --> 00:11:44.494
So you can call it whatever you want.
00:11:44.495 --> 00:11:46.706
If you don\'t want to call it
recovery, don\'t call it recovery
00:11:46.831 --> 00:11:51.043
but you\'re basically teaching a person to be
independent and do the things what they want to do.
00:11:51.419 --> 00:11:52.420
That is recovery.
00:12:01.053 --> 00:12:04.097
I enjoy a lot of solitude just to think.
00:12:04.098 --> 00:12:12.098
A lot of those times I take those times to reflect on daily
life or challenges or some kind of research problem.
00:12:12.898 --> 00:12:20.280
And definitely those long walks
along the cliffside or the beach
00:12:20.281 --> 00:12:24.367
really help in giving me time to
thoroughly think about a given subject.
00:12:24.368 --> 00:12:29.330
But it also gives me time
to zone out, turn off.
00:12:29.331 --> 00:12:35.670
This is a kid who wrote out a check for his
undergraduate student loan balance the day he graduated
00:12:35.671 --> 00:12:43.553
because he was able to work for Cummins Engines and
Texas Instruments and Carnegie Mellon as a roboticist.
00:12:43.554 --> 00:12:46.307
I am very happy.
00:13:01.405 --> 00:13:03.240
I\'d like to thank my mother for
00:13:03.949 --> 00:13:11.949
all the time and energy and resources and years of her life she
investing in my recovery and after all the follow-through.
00:13:14.794 --> 00:13:21.841
I think that\'s a big component of someone\'s recovery, not just
the initial treatment, catching the diagnosis at an early age
00:13:21.842 --> 00:13:28.431
but also investing full time in the rearing of
a child to help them sustain a normal life.
00:13:28.432 --> 00:13:36.432
I got the feeling that I wasn\'t only working
and studying to advance my own quality of life
00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:41.904
but also help her through my independence
that would help her as well.
00:13:42.112 --> 00:13:49.286
She raised me in her house, I hope to take
care of her in mine when the time comes.
00:13:49.328 --> 00:13:51.037
There\'s a beautiful little book.
00:13:51.038 --> 00:13:53.289
It\'s called Goodnight Moon.
00:13:53.290 --> 00:13:58.128
And it was never a story I was able to read to him
because he wouldn\'t attend to it long enough.
00:13:59.088 --> 00:14:00.923
But I think it will be our story.
00:14:04.093 --> 00:14:05.094
It will.
00:14:06.470 --> 00:14:08.973
How much of yourself are you
still when you\'re one year old?
00:14:09.014 --> 00:14:10.307
A very small amount.
00:14:10.683 --> 00:14:16.104
Maybe you have the same favorite food groups but
certainly your personality has changed since then
00:14:16.105 --> 00:14:22.319
but definitely your experiences have a
substantial impact on who you are right now.
00:14:31.412 --> 00:14:33.706
You\'ll have to let me preview
it first because
00:14:34.415 --> 00:14:37.543
I\'m sure I\'ll probably catch myself saying
something technically inaccurate.