Children with Autism: A Developmental Perspective (Developing Child) [Paperback]

Marian Sigman (Author), Lisa Capps (Author)

Book Description

Series: Developing Child | Publication Date: May 20, 1997

A window on the insular world of autism, this book offers a rare close look at the mysterious condition that afflicts approximately 350,000 Americans and affects millions more. As they make sense of the many features of autism at every level of intellectual functioning across the life span, Marian Sigman and Lisa Capps weave together clinical vignettes, research findings, methodological considerations, and historical accounts. The result is a compelling, comprehensive view of the disorder, as true to human experience as it is to scientific observation.

Children with Autism is unique in that it views autism through the lens of developmental psychopathology, a discipline grounded in the belief that studies of normal and abnormal development can inform and enhance one another. Sigman and Capps conduct readers through the course of development from infancy to adulthood, outlining the differences between normal and autistic individuals at each stage and highlighting the links between growth in cognitive, social, and emotional domains. In particular, Sigman and Capps suggest that deficits in social understanding emerge in the early infancy of autistic children, and they explore how these deficits organize the development of autistic individuals through the course of their lives. They also examine the effects certain characteristics can have on an autistic person's adjustment over time. Their book concludes with an overview of existing interventions and promising avenues for further research.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Sigman and Capps have produced an excellent book...the structure of [which] is very clear...By contrasting the development of children with autism with the development of other children, the significance of the core deficits in autism is revealed. Accounts of the relevant theoretical and empirical work are up to date and the use of clinical vignettes really helps to bring the text to life...The authors' wealth of experience of people with autism, together with real empathy for people with social impairments, is apparent throughout...For the undergraduate or person with limited experience of autism, Children with Autism provides a very interesting account of what autism is. However, I would also...urge my colleagues who work as clinical or educational practitioners with children who have developmental disorders to read this book. Those of us who are continually submerged in the histories and observations of children who develop atypically are at risk of losing the wider developmental perspective, which this book provides for us very eloquently.
--Sarah Lister Brook (The Psychologist [UK] )

Strongly recommended. [This book] provides very clear (and yet not over-simplified), up-to-date and non-dogmatic coverage of theories and research concerning this important and interesting topic. It is also useful as a general introduction to the principles of developmental psychopathology: for example, clarifying the crucial and often confusing distinction between core deficits and causes...An invaluable addition to academic and clinical psychology department libraries.
--Ann Dowker (BPS Developmental Psychology Section Newsletter [UK] )

What a pleasure to read a clearly organized book on autism, that delivers what it promises! The title leads the readers to expect a developmental perspective, and the authors choose this eminently sensible approach, reviewing the evidence in terms of what we would expect normally developing infants, children, adolescents, and adults to be doing, and what we find people with autism doing at each of these developmental levels. Equally welcome is the way in which autism is discussed in terms of IQ. In this way, the authors steer well clear of the trap that a simple and static picture can be drawn of autism...The book moves effortlessly from psychological to biological studies, and it reviews what is known and contains illustrative case vignettes to help contextualize these studies...[This book] is a valuable addition to the literature.
--Simon Baron-Cohen (British Journal of Developmental Psychology )

About the Author

Marian Sigman is Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Lisa Capps was Assistant Professor of Psychology at Berkeley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (May 20, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674053133
• ISBN-13: 978-0674053137
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #632,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A 1950s Approach, Misguided at Best, August 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Children with Autism: A Developmental Perspective (Developing Child) (Paperback)

I cannot disagree with the previous review more. As a parent of a child with autism I find this book the worst of its kind: it proports to straddle the fence between "popular" and "scientific," never really being useful in either venue.

The authors repeatedly refer to those with autism with dated terminology such as "the disturbed child," although their central point is that one with autism is disturbed about relatively little. Moreover, after stating that 70% of people with autism are mentally retarded, they proceed to use the term "autis"m as a monolith, comparing it to norms for both "normally" developing children and mentally retarded children, never acknoweldging or problematizing that some autistic folks are one and some are the other.

This highly-trumped "developmental approach" seems dated at best. All these folks did here was construct a norm and repeatedly assert that autistic folks are lacking and different. Even as someone new to this field, I found the book chillingly callous, oddly out of touch and cold, and terribly dated.

I would much more strongly refer readers to more nuanced and carefully constructed studies such as Shirley Cohen's Targeting Autism.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome! Very indepth -- an excellent source of information., December 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Children with Autism: A Developmental Perspective (Developing Child) (Paperback)

This book give a very thurough, indepth description of autism. It is relatively unbiased, and very accurate in both science and life. The development perspective give an excellent over view of autistic development and the nature of this very development disorder. It give information relavent to all levels of functioning and all stages of life, and does a great job a present autism specific characteristic, as well as comorbid features of mental retardation and ADD. It is especially good in dealing with higher-fuctioning autism -- something often ignored in favor of more negative views. I would strongly recommend this book as a new-comers first source of information about autism.