Customer Reviews

Asperger Syndrome and the Elementary School Experience: Practical Solutions for Academic & Social Difficulties

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
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After hearing Susan Thompson Moore speak about her book I had to buy it. It covers just about every academic and social difficulty you can think of. The author easily explains to the reader what Asperger Syndrome is and how it effects the individual through language development, social interaction, sensory integration, motor functioning, and cognitive processing. Many positive strategies are provided on organizational and curriculum accomodations as well as developing social skills and team work.

I have enjoyed reading this book and can see how easily the strategies can be put into place. I also like the charts and graphs that can easily be reproduced for my own use. I recommend this book for parents with children with AS in elementary school and younger (we need to plan!) and well as elementary teachers with special needs kids in their classroom.

Since my son's diagnosis at the end of first grade, I've been purchasing book after book, trying to educate myself. The realities of being a parent of an AS child means that you have to educate, not only yourself, but your child's teachers. This book is a great way to go about it.

Reading through this book, you not only get overviews of the major difficulties that AS children have in their lives, you also realize what challenges they have in the classroom that might not have occurred to you. I knew my son had problems with reading comprehension, even though he had no problems reading the words. This, among other things, is covered very well in the book.

Along with outlining the problems that our children encounter, it also gives strategies on how to overcome them within the classroom. The book also gives recommendations of programs or other materials that can be purchased to help facilitate our children's education.

Along with the OASIS 'bible' to educate yourself, you should purchase this book to educate your teachers. You won't regret it.

I haven't found anyone who hasn't found this book incredibly valuable. I have bought at least four of them because my friends keep "borrowing" them and somehow don't manage to get them back to me. It is such a helpful book that lays out point by point how our kids experience elementary school, their various challenges and how to deal with them. Any parent who is actively involved with their child who has Autism Spectrum Disorder or Asperger Syndrome should have this book as a reference. And every elementary school teacher working with our AS kids should read it too!

Kristi Sakai parent of three children with Asperger Syndrome and author of
Finding Our Way: Practical Solutions for Creating a Supportive Home and Community for the Asperger Syndrome Family

My son was recently diagnosed with Aspergers so I purchased many books on the subject to better help him. This book by far offers the most practical solutions to everyday school issues. Reading about theories and studies is helpful up to a point but as a parent I needed hands on solutions to common problems and this book provided many options that have worked for my son.

I had amassed quite a library of books about Aspergers, each volume containing some useful information, but none which I'd recommend unreservedly. And none which I'd ask an already swamped teacher or principal to read cover to cover. Wary of making another such purchase,I asked our local library to buy Ms. Moore's book. I've read and now renewed it while I wait for my copy, and the copy I'm purchasing for our school.
Ms. Moore's approach to problem solving provides an accessible way for parents and teachers to work as a team on behalf of the child with Aspergers. The sample charts for organizational and behavioral direction are straightforward enough to implement both at home and at school. I appreciate that the tone of this book is neither dispairing nor self-serving in describing Ms. Moore's own child's challenges nor is it filled with the technical jargon that often makes educators' books seem too daunting for parents.
In offering "Practial Solutions," the author offers hope for families and teachers who are navigating the challenging waters of Aspergers.

This is the book children with Asperger's and people who have children on the spectrum have prayed for. This book is a Tool of Empowerment for parents, educators and, most importantly children with AS.

I think it is cruel and unconscionable to withhold information such as diagnoses from parents and the children themselves as was the practice for many years. Once people know what they are contending with and that they are not alone, the world changes for the better. This book is a key to opening up that understanding.

This book does an outstanding job of outlining possible obstacles children with AS might contend with in a classroom. For example, many children with AS are avid readers, but often have trouble understanding why literary people and reports of real people respond and do the things they do. I knew one little girl with AS who was completely baffled by the poem "Self Control," wherein the narrator says that instead of pulling her doll's hair because the doll refused to play with her, she kicked a tree. "Dolls can't refuse. They're just wood or plastic. Why is that self control?" the 6-year-old asked. "And why would anybody want to kick a tree?" The same child thought the song "Singing in the Rain" completely ludicrous because to her way of thinking, "why would anybody want to sing outside and catch a cold from rain when they could sing and be warm inside?" AS reasoning really does make sense if the neurotypical (NT) is willing to listen to the answers. As George Harrison said so well in his 1975 classic, "The Answer's at the End."

I am a classroom teacher (third grade) and a graduate student researching Asperger's. I have been looking for a guide for the classrom teacher that fully incorporates all of the needed information to help these kids succeed in the classroom - I FOUND IT!! - This book is just the best - it is written in language easy to relate to as a teacher. It is in-depth -covering all areas of concern - including classroom and curriculum accomodations, yet brief enough to read in a week or so. I will keep it on my desk as a "go to" book. If you are teaching a child with AS - you need this book.

I have recommended to our entire elementary school staff to read this book and take to heart the simple yet meaningful adaptations teachers can make to help these special ed. students feel more successful in the school setting. This book will help the general education teacher to know more about Asperger Syndrome and understand students with this syndrome. Very specific information--very helpful!!

I love this book. I had it already for a few years and like with Asperger Syndrome and Difficult Moments and also Asperger Syndrome and Adolescence Practical Solutions for School Success books I go back to them pretty often to look for strategies (since it has tons of them!). This book brings the basics for educating children with Asperger or High Functioning autism. So if you don't find the specific strategy, the explanations are so clear that makes it very easy for you to come up with one. Great for parents and teachers!!

I gave a copy of this book to all my sons teachers and aides. It was practical and easy to use and read.