The Essential Guide to Asperger's Syndrome: A parent's complete source of information and advice on raising a child with Aspeger's, by Eileen Bailey and Robert W. Montgomery, PhD, is one of those "complete guide" book ideas that are relatively common on my library's book shelves. They're meant to be one-stop shopping for parents, especially parents that are new to the world of autism. I have, at this point, probably read at least ten books written in this fashion.
This one is better than most. It's also a little more focused than most. Specifically, it focuses on Asperger's Syndrome, or high-functioning autism. The authors were aware this classification was going the way of the dinosaur with the current edition of the DSM, but released this book anyway in case it would help people. I think it well might.
The first thing that set this book apart from other "complete guide" books for me was that it took the time to have a section for autistic women. It has, in the past, been assumed that autism is mainly a masculine disability, because the diagnostic rate is so much higher for boys than it is for girls. There's even a researcher out there that postulates that autism is a disorder that involves a "hyper male mind," which is to say that all autistic people are more masculine and have more stereotypically "male" traits than the average person.
I, personally, do not find that line of research terribly accurate or helpful. Neither does this book, because it takes more than ten pages to explain how autism can look different in girls as they grow up. It also explains how symptoms can take longer to show up in girls with autism, sometimes only becoming obvious in preteen and teenage years.
Another section that set this book apart from most "complete guide" books I've read is that it included a section on social skills, and how to teach them. I found the section a little short and bare bones, but it seemed accurate enough for a start. And it did catch most of the major pitfalls: taking turns in conversations, personal space, the problem with telling the absolute truth, avoiding being the "rules enforcer," personal hygiene, etc. I would've liked to see a section on making small talk, as that was a major stumbling block for me, but perhaps the authors assumed the parents already knew how to handle that.
I was pleased, also, to see a section on bullying included. Bullying is a huge problem when it comes to autistic people. While most people experience a little bit of nastiness in middle school, autistic people are much more prone to being a favorite target, or even getting hit with it much younger, like me. I was a favorite bullying target starting in either Kindergarten or 1st grade, I can't remember which, and that continued until my family moved away after 3rd grade. I was easy to wind up, and predictable. Also, no one would come to my defense. And this all happened before cyber-bullying took the stage. Today's kids have even more ways to be psychologically abused. So unfortunately, the subject merits a lot of discussion and information.
The book also includes a much-needed section on taking care of your family as a whole, making sure the siblings also get attention, self-care, and advice for handling family outings. This is excellent, because these subjects tends to get ignored in the mess of handling the "autism crisis." Unfortunately, ignoring your own well-being for the sake of others eventually wears you out, which is counter-productive. A sad, stressed out family makes for a sad, stressed-out autistic person. Happily, I'm starting to see more workshops and such available for siblings of special-needs people, and more for the parents as well.
My last comment on the matter is that my original diagnosis was Asperger's Syndrome, rather than autism, as defined by the DSM-IVR. So I did see a lot of myself in the pages of this book. While I don't particularly think Asperger's Syndrome should be distinct from autism as a whole, I do think this book has an eye towards a specific section of the autism spectrum, and perhaps that section has mannerisms, tendencies, and behaviors in common. The book would probably have been improved by having an actual autistic person review its contents, as I became miffed on a couple occasions by some apparent oversights in understanding our point of view, but it does fairly well even without that.
This one is better than most. It's also a little more focused than most. Specifically, it focuses on Asperger's Syndrome, or high-functioning autism. The authors were aware this classification was going the way of the dinosaur with the current edition of the DSM, but released this book anyway in case it would help people. I think it well might.
The first thing that set this book apart from other "complete guide" books for me was that it took the time to have a section for autistic women. It has, in the past, been assumed that autism is mainly a masculine disability, because the diagnostic rate is so much higher for boys than it is for girls. There's even a researcher out there that postulates that autism is a disorder that involves a "hyper male mind," which is to say that all autistic people are more masculine and have more stereotypically "male" traits than the average person.
I, personally, do not find that line of research terribly accurate or helpful. Neither does this book, because it takes more than ten pages to explain how autism can look different in girls as they grow up. It also explains how symptoms can take longer to show up in girls with autism, sometimes only becoming obvious in preteen and teenage years.
Another section that set this book apart from most "complete guide" books I've read is that it included a section on social skills, and how to teach them. I found the section a little short and bare bones, but it seemed accurate enough for a start. And it did catch most of the major pitfalls: taking turns in conversations, personal space, the problem with telling the absolute truth, avoiding being the "rules enforcer," personal hygiene, etc. I would've liked to see a section on making small talk, as that was a major stumbling block for me, but perhaps the authors assumed the parents already knew how to handle that.
I was pleased, also, to see a section on bullying included. Bullying is a huge problem when it comes to autistic people. While most people experience a little bit of nastiness in middle school, autistic people are much more prone to being a favorite target, or even getting hit with it much younger, like me. I was a favorite bullying target starting in either Kindergarten or 1st grade, I can't remember which, and that continued until my family moved away after 3rd grade. I was easy to wind up, and predictable. Also, no one would come to my defense. And this all happened before cyber-bullying took the stage. Today's kids have even more ways to be psychologically abused. So unfortunately, the subject merits a lot of discussion and information.
The book also includes a much-needed section on taking care of your family as a whole, making sure the siblings also get attention, self-care, and advice for handling family outings. This is excellent, because these subjects tends to get ignored in the mess of handling the "autism crisis." Unfortunately, ignoring your own well-being for the sake of others eventually wears you out, which is counter-productive. A sad, stressed out family makes for a sad, stressed-out autistic person. Happily, I'm starting to see more workshops and such available for siblings of special-needs people, and more for the parents as well.
My last comment on the matter is that my original diagnosis was Asperger's Syndrome, rather than autism, as defined by the DSM-IVR. So I did see a lot of myself in the pages of this book. While I don't particularly think Asperger's Syndrome should be distinct from autism as a whole, I do think this book has an eye towards a specific section of the autism spectrum, and perhaps that section has mannerisms, tendencies, and behaviors in common. The book would probably have been improved by having an actual autistic person review its contents, as I became miffed on a couple occasions by some apparent oversights in understanding our point of view, but it does fairly well even without that.
Read This Book If
You have an autistic child, especially one that blends better with their peers ("high functioning"), or seems to adhere to the "Aspie" stereotype. Some of the advice in this book is fairly basic, but some of it I hadn't seen before. All in all, I think the authors did a pretty good job putting this book together, and while it's certainly not everything you'll need to raise an autistic child, it's a pretty decent starting point.
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