Customer Reviews

Autism: Teaching Does Make a Difference

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I've taken four graduate level courses in autism education and have worked in the classroom and in support roles in special education for several years, so I've read a lot of autism-focused stuff. This is the best research-focused and easy to read resource I've found. The first chapter provides an overview of autism and autism spectrum disorders, and the second is focused on basic behavioral strategies. The third digs deeper into behavior, titled "Reducing Challenging Behavior." The fourth and fifth are focused on instruction, curriculum development (ch. 4) and teaching strategies (ch. 5). Chapter 6 is "Remediating Deficits in Speech and Language," with seven and eight focused on defecit remediation is socialization and life skills respectively. Finally, the best chapter of the book, Ch. 9, is titled "Understanding Intervention Controversies," and it provides guidance for evaluating interventions, reasons for program failure, and a story of one family's search for an effective program. It does a nice job of sorting through the mess and media surrounding autism without insulting parents or practitioners who have ascribed to strategies or mindsets that aren't research proven or that have been proven ineffective.

I also like that each chapter has a summary at the end with key points. And each chapter has its own list of references at the end, which makes it easy to do further research in just one area of the text (unlike other books that put all the references at the end).

I needed the book for a Graduate class that I'm taking. Great Book; teaches all the basic terms and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder.