Naoki Higashida and Ms Suzuki

Naoki Higashida and Ms Suzuki’s student–teacher relationship is presented through its practical consequence: training at Hagukumi School helped Higashida, whose autism made spoken communication extremely difficult, learn to communicate in writing. The account does not describe Ms Suzuki’s methods in detail, but identifies her alongside Higashida’s mother as one of the people whose support enabled him to develop a means of expression beyond speech.

Training and the beginnings of written communication

Higashida says that training with Ms Suzuki at Hagukumi School, together with his mother’s help, taught him a method of communication through writing. He could eventually write on a computer, but reaching independent written communication took time. On the first day he began, his mother supported his writing hand in hers; that assisted act marked the start of a new way of interacting with other people. The account thus places teaching and close support at the beginning of a gradual process, rather than presenting communication as an ability that appeared all at once.

The alphabet grid as a practical bridge

To make communication more independent, Higashida’s mother invented the alphabet grid. Instead of writing each letter out by hand, he could point to letters and assemble words. For Higashida, pointing also anchored words that otherwise seemed to disappear when he tried to speak. The grid did not replace the earlier work of learning to communicate; it extended that work into a method he could use to convey his thoughts and intentions.

The broader account describes the alphabet grid as a low-tech communication aid: a helper beside Higashida transcribes the words he spells by pointing, allowing them to build into sentences, paragraphs, and books. This process makes clear that communication is not simply a matter of whether speech is audible. It depends on a usable system, the person’s effort, and, where transcription is needed, another person’s participation. Higashida also came to write on a computer, but the grid’s importance lies in giving him another route to expression.

What the relationship makes possible

Higashida recalls feeling defeated while learning to use the method, yet continued because he regarded expressing himself as essential to living as a human being. Once he could indicate letters himself, the grid meant more than a way to construct sentences: it enabled him to communicate what he wanted and needed others to understand. His account links the support he received in training to a wider change in how he could take part in relationships with other people.

That change also shapes his purpose as a writer. He hopes to explain what is happening in the minds of autistic people and to help readers become better friends to them, emphasizing that outward appearance cannot reveal a person’s inner self. The relationship with Ms Suzuki is therefore part of the account’s foundation for self-expression: the training helped make Higashida’s own words available, while those words challenge assumptions that difficulty speaking means an absence of thought, feeling, or a wish to connect. The account identifies Ms Suzuki’s contribution without claiming that one person’s experience represents every autistic person; elsewhere it stresses that autistic people vary in their needs and experiences.