Customer Reviews

The Autism Sourcebook: Everything You Need to Know About Diagnosis, Treatment, Coping, and Healing

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have a loved one (nephew) that has been challenged with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I felt that reading this book would be informative as well as showing my support for the family. Well it was, and then some.

What surprises me is that it is not a dry and tedious read. Author Karen Siff Exkorn manages to explain technical, diagnostic and therapeutic terms and processes in intelligent and uncomplicated English. Make no mistake - this is not a dim-witted "Autism for Dummies" style book either.

It is clear that she has been through much, for only the voice of experience could have this veracity. I was intrigued to read about her family's personal experiences. Her stories and examples involving her son, Jake, are understated and not drenched in sentimentality. It added a very real and human dimension to the book.

The book has four sections:
-Diagnosis
-Treatment
-Coping
-Healing

It also includes a large and pragmatic appendix; covering areas such as diagnostic criteria, organizations, resources, recommended reading, and a glossary.

At the end of each section are questions and answers. I found myself reading the questions and thinking to myself "Hey, now there is a good one!" No stone was left unturned.

I think many parents and guardians will also appreciate chapter 7: "You Have the Power: Advocating for Your Child's Legal Rights". It is clear and practical information, loaded with parent's experiences and helpful tips on how to "work the system". There are a variety of programs and Siff Exkorn explains how to jump the hurdles and stay on top of it all.

There is an aspect often neglected by other books and articles regarding ASD: the emotional impact on the care-givers and the family. Siff Exkorn devoted much of the last two chapters to this very subject matter. Here she advocates taking care of ourselves, and ways to do it, so that we remain effective care-givers and create a content family life that includes a child with an ASD. It was reassuring to read that others have gone through similar experiences.

I am most grateful to Karen Siff Exkorn for authoring this much needed book, and would recommend it to anyone who has interest in the Autistic Spectrum Disorders.

Save your money ... this book is misleading, nothing new, and for anyone to claim that they have written a book that is "everything you need to know" about helping your child with Autism is, in itself, ludicrous.

Apparently "everything you need to know" is just using ABA therapy.

The Author, Karen Siff Exhorn, claims that her child is "completely recovered from Autism" (his actual diagnosis was PDD) but then the author also says that her son still needs a 1:1 ABA therapist to "support him" on playdates. The child is in 4th grade. That is hardly what I would consider to be "recovered".
What this author appears to consider "recovered" is her son's ability to speak, to be compliant, and to not "look autistic" ... meaning, she focused on ABA "training" to get her kid to not flap or shriek and to "look normal". "Looking normal" was the most important thing to her, it seems. So her kid sounds as if he can appear normal, which is great, but her son still doesn't know how to relate to kids, converse with them, or play ...

Half a page on Sensory Integration and a quarter of a page on Integrated Play Therapy can hardly be considered "everything you need to know".

We all have 1000 times more computing power at our fingertips right now than NASA used to get a man on the moon ... yet few of us make very good use of it.

It would be great if there were one book that would tell us everything we needed to know, but since every case of Autism is different, that is not possible. Forget this book and just search the web.

I wish this book had been around five years ago when my son was diagnosed. This is a great start, but ONLY a start. I feel there needs to be much more on sensory integration. My son is also PDD and ABA did nothing for his flapping and spinning. Newly diagnosed parents must remember that Autism isn't curable but treatable. With therapies, diet, and a good special ed teacher their child can live in our world very well. My son is now eight and looks, acts, talks like a typical boy. Certain social still cause stimming and behavior problems but all in all he's doing excellent. Again, this book is a great start.

So many ASD kids are sick with bowel disease and live in terrible pain. This book only covers the bare minimum of ASD issues and deals effectively only with ABA treatment. Sadly, it takes far more to recover many children than ABA. Ms. Siff-Exhorn's book oversimplifies the very complex causes and medical problems that all too often go untreated or are simply viewed as behavioral.

This is an excellent book if you're looking for something like an Autism encyclopedia. This isn't really one of those books that gets into too much personal detail about experiences with Autism, it's more of a guidebook and a reference manual for parents or ABA therapists. It has a plethora of information from diagnosis to dietary intervention. It covers all the bases and leaves you with plenty of hope for your child. Definitely a worthy buy for parents, teachers, or anyone else interested in learning more about Autism and how to intervene.

We received this book as a gift from our pastor's wife with her recommendation. Their son has Asperger's; we have one with Asperger's and another also on the spectrum. I wish I'd read this book sooner, before we went through the IEP process with both boys. There is lots of good information here. And it's truly a sourcebook. It's strucutred so you can skip information that clearly doesn't relate to your situation. Both of our diagnoses were late, for example, so I didn't bother with a lot of the early childhood stuff. Clunkily written and the author could use some humility, but otherwise highly recommended.

As a grandparent and former administrator of programs for people with developmental delays, I found this book extremely helpful in understanding the various treaments that are being promoted. I also thought that the resources listed in the Appendices were unusually detailed and cogent. The Q & A sections cover a gamut of areas that speak to the concerns of confused parents new to all of this, as well as professionals who know quite a bit about autism but need some more specific facts.

My son was diagnosed with autism the week before this book came out. It was a great therapeutic tool to get me on the right track, right away. We were numb with the news, but this book gave us the information we needed, the hope we needed. We were not terrified to hear the word "autism" anymore. How do you thank someone for that? I felt like Karen was a friend who held my hand through my darkest hour. Thanks to this book, I found the strength to move forward. Don't pass up this resource! It's invaluable!

The sub-title of this book 'Everything You Need to Know About Diagnosis, Treatment, Coping, and Healing' pretty well sums it up.

When Karen Siff Exkorn's son was diagnosed with Autism she set out to learn everything about it that she could. Among the things she found out was that there was no single source that had everything she wanted to know. There's a web site here, a book there, an organization, theories of treatment, country groups, specialty hospitals -- but no concentrated source. And especially nothing that would tell a mother how to cope with the disease.

Now there is. It covers not only the medical aspects, but the personal stories of Ms. Siff Exkom and further the stories of people she met and shared similar stories.

To anyone who has an autistic chile, or who knows anyone in that situation this book can be a life saver. I cannot recommend this book too highly.

Karen Siff Exkorn's book has been an invaluable resource to me. When my close friend's child was diagnosed with autism, I had no idea how to approach her and talk to her about it. I feared I would say the wrong thing to her and found myself avoiding her -- not calling, not visiting -- and having a tremendous amount of guilt around that. The chapter of the book, "Advice to Loved Ones: Coping Tips for Family & Friends," was so helpful to me. The author's guidance was amazing and gave me what I needed to show up as the kind of friend I want to be. The chapter's practical and common-sense guidance has transformed the way I am able to support my friend and what she is facing with her child's disorder. I learned that rather than hiding, we should call and visit our loved ones, even asking questions about the diagnosis and treatment so they can see that we accept them, care for them and are here to support them. This chapter also taught me about listening to my friend and what she was going through with her child. I had felt hesistant to reach out in part because I felt I had to provide her with good insights and advice. Siff Exkorn explains that we needn't -- and shouldn't -- give unsolicited advice and that listening can be of tremendous help. I can now comfortably sit with my friend and give her the space to vent her sadness and frustration about autism and the effect its had on her child and family. By just "being there" for her, I'm doing enough. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is close to someone touched by autism.