Knowing Yourself, Knowing Others: A Workbook for Children with Asperger's Disorder, Nonverbal Learning Disorder, & Other Social-Skill Problems, by Barbara Cooper and Nancy Widdows
First of all, this is a workbook. It has lots of places where you're supposed to fill in your own answers or draw pictures. I never got libraries having workbooks, because the rule is pretty strict with those: you do not draw in or mark up library books. The simultaneous urgings to do and don't draw in the workbook annoyed me, and left me feeling uncomfortable as I read through this book. I suppose a solution would be to photocopy every page in the book, then give the child the copies to work on. Or perhaps one could say that this is a copy for adults to review, before buying a copy for a kid on the spectrum. In any case, not the traditional use of a workbook. Also not really the book's fault.
The focus of the book appears to be getting young kids to think about emotions and social rules, as well as giving them basic guidelines (people like to talk about things they're interested in, taking turns in conversation, etc). I liked some of the tools they presented, including mental constructs for calming oneself down, understanding the types of friendships you have, etc.
The book includes various activities, including handicraft projects. The first one caught my attention: a keychain with various colors on it to represent emotions, such that you can use it to say how you're feeling, including multiple colors for complicated emotions. When I was little, I tried to use jewelry to do kind of the same thing, but the system was forgettable and not very portable, let alone useful to any adults I happened to be near. It was really just meant to help me feel more in control of myself, and to sort out my emotions. But it wasn't very successful.
I was interested in the section that deals with competition, winners, and losers. I feel like that's an area I never completely progressed in, and in truth, I don't really enjoy competitive things. So Chris, my fiancee, and I mainly play cooperative games together, where it's us versus the game. I'm unsure if that counts as giving up on having fun with competitive games, or simply not bothering because I know it won't be fun. My father very much enjoys competitive games, and we learned to play Monopoly (and lost regularly to him), but my brother and I both seem to prefer cooperative games.
In any case, having good ways to win and lose spelled out to you is probably a good thing. Almost all of what was in this book, I've learned by myself, but I somehow think it wouldn't have hurt to have had it spelled out in front of me. The same goes for the friendship levels (best friend, friend, acquaintance). I got along without these things, but they make it easier, I think.
First of all, this is a workbook. It has lots of places where you're supposed to fill in your own answers or draw pictures. I never got libraries having workbooks, because the rule is pretty strict with those: you do not draw in or mark up library books. The simultaneous urgings to do and don't draw in the workbook annoyed me, and left me feeling uncomfortable as I read through this book. I suppose a solution would be to photocopy every page in the book, then give the child the copies to work on. Or perhaps one could say that this is a copy for adults to review, before buying a copy for a kid on the spectrum. In any case, not the traditional use of a workbook. Also not really the book's fault.
The focus of the book appears to be getting young kids to think about emotions and social rules, as well as giving them basic guidelines (people like to talk about things they're interested in, taking turns in conversation, etc). I liked some of the tools they presented, including mental constructs for calming oneself down, understanding the types of friendships you have, etc.
The book includes various activities, including handicraft projects. The first one caught my attention: a keychain with various colors on it to represent emotions, such that you can use it to say how you're feeling, including multiple colors for complicated emotions. When I was little, I tried to use jewelry to do kind of the same thing, but the system was forgettable and not very portable, let alone useful to any adults I happened to be near. It was really just meant to help me feel more in control of myself, and to sort out my emotions. But it wasn't very successful.
I was interested in the section that deals with competition, winners, and losers. I feel like that's an area I never completely progressed in, and in truth, I don't really enjoy competitive things. So Chris, my fiancee, and I mainly play cooperative games together, where it's us versus the game. I'm unsure if that counts as giving up on having fun with competitive games, or simply not bothering because I know it won't be fun. My father very much enjoys competitive games, and we learned to play Monopoly (and lost regularly to him), but my brother and I both seem to prefer cooperative games.
In any case, having good ways to win and lose spelled out to you is probably a good thing. Almost all of what was in this book, I've learned by myself, but I somehow think it wouldn't have hurt to have had it spelled out in front of me. The same goes for the friendship levels (best friend, friend, acquaintance). I got along without these things, but they make it easier, I think.
Read/Use This Book If:
You or your child is early middle school or younger, and is having difficulty understanding social rules, having conversations, expressing or identifying emotions, etc. The word level and concepts addressed do not strike me as high school age appropriate, but since people on the spectrum progress slowly at times, some exceptions might still find the book useful. I doubt I personally would have appreciated being handed this book in high school, but then, I did manage to avoid detection as an autistic person until college.
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