Books for parents & teachers of Autistic children

Toilet Training for Individuals with Autism and Related Disorders
by Maria Wheeler

A godsend for the newly diagnosed.
Reviewer: Chris B. from Central NJ

   My 3 and a half year old son was diagnosed with (high functioning) Autistic Spectrum Disorder last month. While we're still dealing with the shock of the diagnosis, it was a relief to read that children with ASD are among the hardest to train. We have been attempting toilet learning for the past two years using "traditional" methods and have not had one single success. What a relief to find out that these traditional methods do not work well with autistic children! We are looking forward to working with my son's teachers using the methods described in the book. The book is also a good overview of problems people with Autism have in the toileting arena - we now have a better idea of what potential problems my son may have later (ie, using public restrooms) and feel empowered by the strategies suggested in dealing with them BEFORE they happen.

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Facing Autism: Giving Parents Reasons for Hope and Guidance for Help
by Lynn M. Hamilton, Bernard Rimland

A MUST BUY FOR THE PARENTS OF A NEWLY-DIAGNOSED CHILD...
Reviewer: fjross

This book should be on the shelves of all professionals dealing with the diagnosis of autism in children, so that they can hand it over to the parents who have just received the news.
Lynn Hamilton, the mother of an autistic child herself, deals first of all with the difficult time parents experience as they come to terms with their child's condition. But she then goes on to do what many so-called experts in the field do not do - she tells us what we CAN do, rather than leaving it there. This book covers the essential topics of diet, supplementation and biomedical treatments such as anti-fungal therapy and secretin, which made a big difference to her son's condition.
There are comprehensive lists of helpful websites. She gives details of various resources for Occupational and other therapies.
She also gives an overview of the main educational approaches, in particular describing more fully how a home-based ABA program has greatly helped her son, who is now in mainstream school. While she, herself, is based in the USA, this information, and contact addresses for training courses and support groups, is given for other countries too.
However, although this is indeed an 'essential guide' and handbook containing all the information you need as you start to investigate how to help your autistic child, it is also much more. In a very down-to-earth, honest and readable manner, Lynn Hamilton shares her own experiences...........her hopes, fears, pain and ultimately her joy in her son's triumph over many of his former difficulties.
I read this book about 15 months after my own son's diagnosis, by which time I had accumulated a great deal of knowledge, and collected piles of printouts from the Internet! However, in this one volume, there was still much for me to learn, as well as a welcome encouragement to continue to have a great deal of hope for my child.
Lynn's faith shines out from this book, and it has certainly helped to lighten my own path through this maze that is Autism.

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Teach Me Language: A Language Manual for children with autism, Asperger's syndrome and related developmental disorders.
by Sabrina K. Freeman, Lorelei Dake

Teach Me Language
Reviewer: Cindy from Minnesota

  A Real Winner! This book is an excellent resource for parents and therapists who teach language to children with autism, Asperger's syndrome, and other related developmental disorders. Instructional friendly explanations, games, and cards teach language skills used in school and in life. The key feature that I really like about this book is that all information is very visual and structured. This book targets the areas of social language, general and functional knowledge, grammar and syntax, written expression, and academic concepts such as sequencing, problem-solving, time and money. Once a child has some basic vocabulary and can answer simple "what" and "where" questions, this book should be in your hands! Activities in this book are practical with children from kindergarten through the teenage years.

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Activity Schedules for Children With Autism: Teaching Independent Behavior (Topics in Autism)
by Lynn E. McClannahan, Ph.D , Patricia J. Krantz , Ph.D
 

Appropriate goals.
Reviewer: weofui from Longmont, CO

  The goal of raising any child is to guide them into independance, and though many autistic children will never reach complete independence, it remains an important goal. Independence is an important factor in self-esteem and is essential for entering any portion of adult life. I was consistently frustrated with therapy manuals which required my complete and undivided attention at all times. I'm under no delusion that I will be forever available to my autistic son, and it would be nice for me to feel that he could get up and at least dress himself at some point without my verbally prompting him.

  The clear instructions and logical directives in "Activity Schedules for Children with Autism" place it on my 'highly recommended' list. While not a book I would recommend for a parent whose child has been newly diagnosed, I certainly recommend it to those parents with other therapeutic programs already in place. The activity schedules are very easily integrated into existing therapies and school environments, greatly boosting their success. I've also implemented an advanced version of activity schedules, verbally explained, with my five-year-old typical daughter - as a result the morning 'dilly-dallies' and afternoon 'hum-drums' have all but disappeared.

  I would recommend that existing image programs be used whenever possible, only to cut down on the time it takes to prepare the schedules. I use Flash! Pro2, which can be found online, though there are many other graphic programs that could be used as well. (As a webmaster I've found that many of the 'web-ready' image collections contained pictures that were appropriate for this program as well as ABA and DTT programs.)

  All-in-all, excellent book, flexible program, expertly explained.

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Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder: A Mother's Story of Research and Recovery
by Karyn Seroussi, Bernard Rimland

Essential
Reviewer: andy_from_nc from Durham, NC

  I'll divide this into two parts.. The subject and then the book itself.

   Over a year ago I started dating a woman whose 4 year old child has autism. On one of my many book store trips, I saw this book on my way to get coffee. I didn't even read the subtitle, it was a pure impulse buy.

Reading through the first few chapters I began to identify with some of the behaviors. The behaviors often relate to food or peculiar corollaries to food. Some of it was medical history. Some of it were questions like "Why do all the autistic children I've met have asthma and eczema (bumps on the skin)? What is that diaper rash that won't go away?". I quickly devoured the book and finally made it to the implementation section. It took awhile but I finally convinced my (by then) fiancé to read the book. Once she did, she was convinced that we must try this.

Nearly, Immediately after implementing the diet, my stepson (by then) began simple speech and just spontaneously potty trained. After he was off it for awhile we experimented at reintroducing the foods, he immediately regressed and became physically affected! My stepson is not cured of autism and probably never will be (although others claim to be), but I feel that with this diet (as prescribed by the book), he'll have a productive and happy life.

The book:

  The book is well written in a story-like manner. The descriptions of the diet and of that etymological subtype of autism that will respond to the diet, are effective and seemingly complete. The end of the book, the "how-to implement" is not comprehensive enough. For this you'll need to do more research. There are a number of mail lists to do this and the book points you to a number of other resources. Many areas have even opened support groups for the diet. I don't fault the book for this as its not the objective, this tells you what and why. Others tell you how.

  If your child has autism, this diet is non-invasive (unlike medical experimentation) and though a bit cutting edge, its not a big step. In 5-10 years this will be considered blanket fact. The diet is difficult, its especially hard with daycare/school/etc. but while it is a lifestyle change, its worth it. Lastly, the diet does not "cure" autism, nor is it a substitute for behavioral and speech therapy, its what allows greater progress to take place.

  As for my stepson, he now uses complete sentences to tell us what he wants and can relate simple concepts. He originally just screamed "help help help". He's (at five) recently taken to pbs.org and fully understands the concept of "click" and moving the mouse. He can't yet relate abstract things "how was your day" but has shown small sniplets of past-tense: "I like today". What's most important is that he TRIES to use language and synthesizes new meanings and thoughts. He gets a lot of the grammar wrong and most of the pronouns, but he's on the verge of conversational language. His "understanding" has progressed more than his "expression" at this point (where before the opposite was true). Do we credit all of this to the diet? NO. But the diet allowed it to happen. Read this book.

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Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family's Triumph over Autism
by Catherine Maurice

With great appreciation to Catherine Maurice
Reviewer: A reader from NY

   I can not begin to express the amount of appreciation I have towards Catherine Maurice. Many people who have autistic children may read her book and wonder why this woman was deemed lucky enough to save not one, but two of her children from autism. I believe that she was successful not only for completely dedicating herself to her children, but also because of the book she would write for others as well. After finding out that our daughter has PDD our lives changed. If it weren't for Catherine's book, I don't know where I would have found the strength to help our daughter. Although we are grateful that her diagnosis was on the mild end of the spectrum we still had no idea how to help her. She was already in a special ed play group and receiving tons of speech OT and PT. I had never heard of ABA therapy. It was friend of mine who put me in touch with someone who runs an ABA program that I got my first real education in ABA. By some miracle I connected with a two fantastic ABA therapists who was trained by a top professional. My daughter had an immediate connection with her, and in the short six months that have past we have seen a dramatic difference in her behaviors. No two people have the same experiences in life and no two parents will have the same reaction when their child is diagnosed with PDD. What I have learned from this book is that we owe it to our child to pull ourselves together as quick as possible so that we can perhaps foster our own "miracle." Throughout this process I have encountered countless kindred spirits who have intentionally or coincidentally came to our rescue. I do count Catherine Maurice as one of those spirits.

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Teaching Children With Autism to Mind-Read : A Practical Guide for Teachers and Parents
by Patricia Howlin, Simon Baron-Cohen, Julie Hadwin

Great part of a program for young children with autism
Reviewer: Paul M. from Beaverton, OR USA

    This book contains a great program for teaching young children with autism how to interpret facial expressions and other social cues. It is aimed at young children.

  If you have a teenager with autism, you may need more help, since the typical teen's social environment is much more complex than that of a younger child. This of course begs the question of why anyone would wait until their child was a teenager to start addressing his/her autism. One should instead start as early as possible, preferably well before 3 years of age, and definitely before 5 years of age. The longer you wait, the more difficult it gets, and the less promising the prognosis.

  Is this book the only resource you will need to address your child's autism? Most definitely not! You should read "Let Me Hear Your Voice" by Catherine Maurice, and you should find a parent support group near you (check www.feat.org for a list by region). ABA treatment is a must, and some children also benefit from changes in diet, megavitamin therapy, and other treatments. ABA (especially), diet, and vitamins helped several children in my community go from a diagnosis of autism to testing in the normal range. But they all started very aggressive treatment early: before the age of 4.

  So, read this book, but also gather information in the area of ABA, diet, and vitamins. Find other parents who are aggressively addressing their child's autism--you will need the mutual support. Above all, hit your child's autism with everything you can as early as you possibly can! There is not yet a guaranteed cure, but you can give your child a fighting chance of attaining a normal level of functioning.