ABC's 20/20 this Friday: "Teen Locked in Autistic Body Finds Inner Voice"

This Friday, ABC's 20/20 will feature a story on a nonverbal autistic girl who, at the age of 11, was finally able to express herself through typing:

One day, three years ago, when Carly was 11, she was working with two of her therapists when she started to feel sick. Unable to communicate what she needed, she ran to a computer and began to type for the first time.

First she typed the word "H-U-R-T" and then "H-E-L-P" and then she threw up. Her therapists were shocked: They had never specifically taught her those words, and they wondered where she had learned them.

Carly's typing showed them that there was a lot more going on inside her head than they had thought. For the first time she was able to communicate independently. After nine years of intensive therapy, and not much to show for it, Carly was finally emerging out of her silent, secret world.

You can read her story on ABC News website here, and watch the segment on 2/20 Friday 9pm CST.