The method has been discredited as pseudoscience by organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association (APA). With help from his mother, he is purported to have written the book using a method he calls 'facilitated finger writing', also known as facilitated communication (FC). Higashida was diagnosed with autism spectrum (or 'autism spectrum disorder', ASD) when he was five years old and has limited verbal communication skills.

It has been translated into over 30 other languages. Psychologist Jens Hellman said that the accounts 'resemble what I would deem very close to an autistic child's parents' dream.' The book became a New York Times bestseller and a Sunday Times bestseller for hardback nonfiction in the UK. Since Higashida lacks a genuine ability to use either written or verbal language, researchers dismiss all claims that Higashida actually wrote the book himself. The book alleges that its author, Higashida, learned to communicate using the scientifically discredited techniques of facilitated communication and rapid prompting. The English translation, by Keiko Yoshida and her husband, English author David Mitchell, was published in 2013. The Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism ( Japanese: 自閉症の僕が跳びはねる理由～会話のできない中学生がつづる内なる心～, Hepburn: Jiheishō no Boku ga Tobihaneru Riyū ~Kaiwa no Dekinai Chūgakusei ga Tsuzuru Uchinaru Kokoro~) is a biography attributed to Naoki Higashida, a nonverbal autistic person from Japan.

The reason i jump author