The Boy Who Loved Windows: Opening The Heart And Mind Of A Child Threatened With Autism [Paperback]

Patricia Stacey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2004

This enthralling memoir is the day-by-day story of how one little boy was saved from a path leading to autistic isolation. It is also a first-hand account of the new model of research and treatment pioneered by Stanley Greenspan, M.D. that makes this recovery possible for others. Walker, whom pediatricians worried would never walk, talk, or perhaps even hear or see, was lucky enough to be born to a family who would not accept defeat. Pat Stacey reveals the darkest fears, struggles, exhaustion, tiny victories, and eventual joys her family faced as they gradually brought Walker into full contact with the world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Any parent who has suspected something was off with their baby will empathize with the first chapters of The Boy Who Loved Windows, which recounts the familiar tale of medical practitioners refusing to run tests or offer diagnoses. You'll empathize even more when it turns out that mom (and author) Patricia Stacey was right: young Walker is autistic. It's partially the empathy that makes this such a compelling read. Some chapters are devoted to Walker's life at home; others mix his development with medical details. The facts are wrenching: an estimated 1 in 500 people has some level of autism, causes are unclear, and the expectation for a cure is microscopic. But midway through the book, the family meets up with Dr. Stanley Greenspan (The Child With Special Needs), who introduces new techniques that spread rapidly to Walker's assorted therapists. Progress begins, if at a glacial pace. Stacey lets readers into her emotional process over the years she details; her anger, frustration, and concern over the rest of her family and her wild joy at some seemingly minor events provide a roller coaster in contrast to the more methodical research explanation. As a complement to more direct parenting books on autism or simply as a fascinating look at the early development of an atypical child, this book makes good on the promise of its intriguing title. --Jill Lightner --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Former Atlantic Monthly staffer Stacey makes her debut with a sharply observed, deeply personal account of her son Walker's metamorphosis from a worryingly unresponsive infant to an intelligent, normally functioning child. Living in the leafy college town of Northampton, Mass., Stacey documents her harrowing experiences as a mother, as she and her husband, Cliff, quickly realize that Walker is not a normal, happy baby. Walker fails to respond to his parents, eats very little, is unable to express emotion and spends much of his time staring at windows. Stacey works night and day to try to reverse Walker's diagnosis of possible autism, trying every conceivable treatment and specialist and obsessively educating herself about new trends in the neuroscience behind the disorder. She realizes that Walker blankly stares out of windows not because his senses are dulled but because they are overwhelmed; Walker is hypersensitive to the world and cannot cope with the constant rush of stimuli. Child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan recommends his controversial "floor time" strategy for Walker: several hours of rigorous playtime between parent and child per day, emphasizing interaction. The time, money and stress involved in maintaining an intensive schedule of treatments for Walker from his eighth to 20th month soon show their toll on the Stacey family, as funds run dry, the parents grow further apart, and less time is available for Walker's older sister, Elizabeth. Stacey in particular becomes increasingly nervous, obsessive and exhausted from her constant battle to improve her son's life, but the result is stage-by-stage breakthroughs. Some readers will want less personal and medico-historical detail and fewer in-depth treatments of the various therapies and sessions, but Stacey keeps the focus on her own understanding, which ultimately sustains the book.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (September 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073820966X
• ISBN-13: 978-0738209661
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How you feel depends on why you are reading this..., October 2, 2005

By 

Suzanne Amara (MA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Boy Who Loved Windows: Opening The Heart And Mind Of A Child Threatened With Autism (Hardcover)

If you like dramatic stories about autism "cures" or tales about extremely devoted parents doing everything possible to help their troubled children, then this is a book for you. It's very well written and a real page-turner, a classic of this genre. Before I had children, it would have been right up there with my favorite books. I loved this kind of book!

Then came my oldest son, who is on the autistic spectrum. After 11 years of wonderful life with him, I have very different feelings about such books, and I will go out on a limb and say I have a right to. Life with children with autism or PDD or Aspergers is hard but rewarding, tough but at times extremely wonderful. But it's not a dramatic story. It's not something where through your own slavish devotion you can "fix" your child.

I am not saying that the author is not telling the truth. I am sure she IS telling what happened to her. I could write a book too, about having a son that was diagnosed with classic autism at 2, and now at 11 doesn't even completely met the diagnostic criteria for Aspergers. But it wouldn't be as dramatic as this one, as I did nothing terribly dramatic to bring this about. My feeling is autism is not an iron-clad scientific diagnosis. As children grow, they change, and certainly having devoted parents and professionals is a great thing for them, but sometimes the early diagnosis has to be revisited, and no-one can say exactly why. I DO know that other children in a family also need time, and an extreme regiment like the one shown here, which at times involved not even leaving the house and parents spending extreme amounts of time with one child, can leave out the other children no matter how hard you try to not make this so.

I don't want to put down the author or her family. I admire anyone for loving their children so much. But there are so many of us other families out there, living day by day with our kids. I can no longer simply enjoy a book like this, as I once certainly would, without thinking of its impact on readers or, someday, on the adults on the autistic spectrum who will read it.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary Story, Beautifully Told, November 15, 2003

By 

S. Resnick "szresnick" (Manhattan Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boy Who Loved Windows: Opening The Heart And Mind Of A Child Threatened With Autism (Hardcover)

From the moment I started this book I couldn't put it down. Patricia Stacey writes with exquisite detail, honesty and humor about the desperate journey she and her family began upon the birth of her son Walker. As I read of her race to uncover what was at the root of Walker's diffficulties, and to help him connect with her and the world at large, I too felt panic, chaos, exhilaration and hope. The book does an extraordinary job of making sensory integration understandable, and provides great detail about the specific therapies, especially Floortime, that enabled Walker to blossom. But this book is not only for parents of children with autism, or clinicians. Ms. Stacey puts beautiful words to larger thoughts and questions about how we all connect to each other that will linger long after finishing the book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book for anyone who has loved a child, November 13, 2003

By 

Julie Diamond (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Boy Who Loved Windows: Opening The Heart And Mind Of A Child Threatened With Autism (Hardcover)

This compelling true story traces the intriciate map of a child's troubled journey from birth to five years. Told as a mother's memoir in eloquent and moving language, we learn of Walker's difficults in his earliest months of life. His lack of strength, slow growth, terrible allergies, and, most troubling, his need to draw inward and fix on the light of the windows. So begins one family's odyssey to find help for their son Walker who is threatened with autism.

First time author Stacey tacks deftly between medical research in the area of sensory integration disorder and autism, and the emotional terrain of a passionate and loving parent who is also struggling along as wife, sister, daughter, friend. Stacey explores the terrors of worrying that her child may be severly limited in his capabilities, along with the inescapable fatique and fallout from a near obssessive devotion to doing whatever is necessary to save Walker.

Because of the urgency of early intervention in these types of sensory integration disorders, the book is highly suspenseful and dramatic. I couldn't put it down. I had to know what did the next doctor think, how was Walker responding to therapy provided by REACH, would he regress or continue with breakthroughs, how was Walker's four-year-old sister Elizabeth coping with the turmoil in her family.

When you close this book, you will feel that Pat, Cliff, Elizabeth and Walker have drawn you into their New England home to share their intimate experience of heartbreak and of triumph. You will feel that you've been on the floor doing the "floor time" prescribed by the esteemed Dr. Stanley Greenspan. That you've been left abandonned in the waiting room of yet another surly medical expert. That you've experienced the excitement of Walker's first ride in his stroller in the driveway, of his laughter, first words and eventual development into an active, verbal, loving child.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has loved a child. Walker's dramatic and uplifting story is powerfully recounted with luminous imagery and fierce honesty. Stacey's enormous literary talent is evident from the first page. I look forward to reading more of her work.