Helpful Score: 2
I am disappointed with this book. It could have been so much more. The author can write well. Not suprising since she's a ghost writer for others. She has a way with words. This book is poetic and well written. However, I can't recommend the book because I was left with an impression of how highly she thought of herself. Nearly every page is about how intuitive she is or how patient or loving. It's really about her and not as much about her son. It's quite a self-congratulatory book. She doesn't give a lot of details on how her son improved. He just did. She put him in a typical preschool with typical peers and he just got better to the point he was no longer autistic. I would hate to have other parents of kids on the spectrum think that's all there is to it.
This author doesn't believe in speech therapy, behavioral therapy, or occupational therapy. The vast majority of autistic children improve with a combination of those therapies. It would be a shame for the parent of a newly diagnosed child to think that their child will have the same result with just being in a typical preschool without any additional services. That's simply not the case. I would have loved to have known how the author's son lost his echolalia (tendency to repeat things). She is told by a professional that the boy has such severe echolalia that he will never lose it completely. Yet in a short span of time (2 years) he has lost the echolalia and is conversational. No explanations are given as to how that happened. It would have been nice to know.
She has no sympathy or connection with other parents of children on the autism spectrum. In fact, I don't think I even recall her talking to any other parent of a child on the spectrum! She doesn't seem to believe in proven therapies like behavioral therapy or speech therapy. There's a sense of smugness about the way she parents. Her book is about what a loving and tender mother she is. And she is that. She clearly loves her son. But her experience with autism is not at all like the realities that most autistic parents experience. I just couldn't get over how often she patted herself on the back.
This author doesn't believe in speech therapy, behavioral therapy, or occupational therapy. The vast majority of autistic children improve with a combination of those therapies. It would be a shame for the parent of a newly diagnosed child to think that their child will have the same result with just being in a typical preschool without any additional services. That's simply not the case. I would have loved to have known how the author's son lost his echolalia (tendency to repeat things). She is told by a professional that the boy has such severe echolalia that he will never lose it completely. Yet in a short span of time (2 years) he has lost the echolalia and is conversational. No explanations are given as to how that happened. It would have been nice to know.
She has no sympathy or connection with other parents of children on the autism spectrum. In fact, I don't think I even recall her talking to any other parent of a child on the spectrum! She doesn't seem to believe in proven therapies like behavioral therapy or speech therapy. There's a sense of smugness about the way she parents. Her book is about what a loving and tender mother she is. And she is that. She clearly loves her son. But her experience with autism is not at all like the realities that most autistic parents experience. I just couldn't get over how often she patted herself on the back.
