A POSITIVE APPROACH TO AUTISM

Reviews

A review taken from Amazon.co.uk

By A Customer  4 Nov 2002

Positive and understanding,

I love this book. I'd recommend it to any parent of an autistic child, or anyone working with autistic children or adults. If you have been dealing with the "system" for any period of time you may have a somewhat negative view of your child's behaviour. You may feel that everything they do is strange and unusual and not quite right. In this book Stella Waterhouse describes how she sees autism as a very natural reaction to an unusual situation. She describes the sensory problems in detail and invites us to imagine what our response may be if we were to find ourselves in such a situation. Current theories on the biomedical causes of autism are clearly explained. In addition the book details the role of anxiety in autism and in other related disorders. Highly recommended.

Taken from Amazon.com

By Joav Merrick

This is indeed a very positive book by Stella Waterhouse, who has spend many years teaching children with learning disabilities and emotional problems, but after providing residential care and training to teenagers with autism, she began research that resulted in this publication. The book is divided into eight chapters. The first is a historic review of autism followed by theories and ideas with examples from the various schools of thought about autism. These thoughts are then analyzed and discussed resulting in several hypotheses. It is proposed that there are different types of autism: perceptual autism or Asperger's syndrome, reactive autism or reactive Asperger's syndrome, delayed Asperger's syndrome and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), induced autism, frontal lobe syndrome and secondary autism. The following chapters deal with the various diagnostic tools, treatment alternatives and implications for education, residential care, family and spouses. There are also some very useful additions, such as glossary and addresses. The argument of the book is that children with autism are not mentally handicapped, but rather normal children, whose problems leave them isolated and unable to express or understand even their own feelings due to a special response to anxiety. An interesting review for parents or professionals working with autism.

Professor Joav Merrick, MD, DMSc Medical Director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail: jmerrick@aquanet.co.il