Communicating Partners: 30 Years of Building Responsive Relationships with Late-Talking Children including Autism, Asperger's Syndrome (ASD), Down Syndrome, and Typical Developement [Paperback]

James D. MacDonald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2004 | ISBN-10: 1843107589 | ISBN-13: 978-1843107583

Children with autism and their life partners - their parents, families, peers and educators - who are not on the autism spectrum can feel as though they live in separate, and even incompatible worlds. Communicating Partners, the result of over thirty years of clinical practice, research and professional teaching, offers an innovative approach to working with children with ASDs that focuses on developing these relationships through mutual understanding.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'James MacDonald's book is based on over 30 years of research and clinical work at Ohio State University. Communicating Partners is an optimistic approach to working with children with communication disorders. It challenges practitioners to think beyond traditional therapy programmes and focus more on language learning in naturalistic environments and developing strengths through positive social relationships. MacDonald encourages practitioners and parents to consider the power of child-led play and advocates the theory that only once you enter into the child's world will you have the slightest chance of teaching them something new. Communicating Partners is a useful resource for professionals working with children with language and social communication difficulties and would also be of interest to parents.'- Early Talk Newsletter'The book offers speech and language professionals a model to guide their therapy plans, but emphasizes the need for therapy to be generalized to daily life. Accordingly it emphasizes the need for parents and professionals to become partners in helping the child, stressing that children best develop social interaction skills within the family. Numerous anecdotes are included to illustrate how this approach has helped a wide variety of children and their families. This book would be of particular benefit to the parents/carers of children who are late to develop language for any reason, since it provides simple ideas to help stimulate social communication by following the child's lead. Professionals working with families may also find it useful to give ideas of where to start remediation and target therapy. Although it is not solely aimed at parents/carers of children on the autistic spectrum, it would probably be of most benefit to this group.' - Child Language Teaching and Therapy'The author, who is vastly experienced, presents this child-centred approach clearly, offering students, parents and professionals plenty of background information and practical guidance.' - Care and Health Magazine

About the Author

James D. MacDonald was Professor of Speech and Language Pathology and Developmental Disabilities at Ohio State University. He currently directs the Communicating Partners Center and publishes the national newsletter, Communicating Partners, which provides updated guidelines for parents and professionals. He has written six books and over fifty professional papers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Pub (April 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843107589
• ISBN-13: 978-1843107583
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #459,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book has been the MOST helpful! March 15, 2005

By Dawn E. Evans

Format:Paperback

After reading this book, and I have previously read other books by Dr. MacDonald, I must say that the techniques in it are the most family friendly ideas I've ever heard of! The viewpoint is so refreshing, to think that we as families CAN be the most influential people in our child's social development is a new approach. This book has shown me how to incorporate very do-able ideas into our everyday life. The techniques included in it are something the entire family can learn and can supplement any professional's course of therapy. Professional therapists would also find this valuable...it concentrates on the social aspect of development, and really, that is the basis for all communication. To get into the child's world and to be able to match his abilities, without judgement or correction, has unbelievable, immediate results! I highly recommend this book, to families, educators, therapists, and physicians!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes a good partner with Floortime December 11, 2007

By Tara Marshall

Format:Paperback

If you like Stanley Greenspan's DIR/Floortime approach, but need help applying it to teaching your child communication and language skills, this is probably the book for you.

Dr. MacDonald's approach is a developmental approach, where you get down on the child's level and try to get him/her up onto the next step with you. (For anyone who has read any Greenspan, this should sound familiar). Unlike ABA, it does not teach skills in isolation, and does not skip developmental steps to reach a desired "eventual" goal, something I've seen harm children many times.

To give a fairly common example, a lot of schools push children from crawling into walking before the child is ready. Just because a child is 5 physical years old does not mean they are developmentally ready to walk, and most of these children suffer from problems with trunk stability and fine motor control that are directly linked to this skipping of developmental steps. I've seen ABA programs that push for language too early in the child's development leaving kids knowing a lot of labels for things, but still having no idea of how to use words to communicate with others. Saying "red truck" doesn't mean anything if all the child is doing is labelling an object, that is, it is not COMMUNICATION. It may be somewhat meaningful if it is used as a request (for example, the child wants to actually play with that toy).

As a person with High Functioning Autism myself, I believe in Floortime and Communicating Partners as developmentally sensitive alternatives to ABA that are more meaningful to the child. As a Habilitation worker and Speech Assistant, I use a combination of these approaches with most of the children I work with....

Good luck helping the children in your life, autistic and otherwise, learn how to communicate better. Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful January 13, 2006

By Linda Sebek

Format:Paperback

When we started doing the things suggested in this book our sons language and communication started to grow much more than before. The method is very easy, and yet so hard. The point is that to help our son develop, we have to change to fit him. This book covers all you need to get started right away (without even reading the whole book). It's great both for parents and professionals. My son has Down syndrome.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellant support February 29, 2008

By Bonnie Hacker

Format:Paperback

I am the owner of a private practice that provides speech and occupational therapy services to children with special needs, many of them falling on or near the autism spectrum. Communicating Partners is the book that my speech therapists consistantly recommend to parents of young children looking to support their child's language development. It is also a good book for professionals and my therapists have used it as the basis for ongoing discussion about therapy provision.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Would be good for a parent just finding out their child had a developmental disability. December 29, 2010

By Lou A. Deroux

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I would have found this helpful if it was the first book that I had read on communicating with a special child. I had read others however and I found the information to be repetitive.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book November 22, 2009

By L. Stone

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was recommended by my grandson's psychologist. He said throw all the other books away and we have, gladly! This book is our new bible. It has not only given us hope, but has made daily life less stressful and more fun.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish I had found this first! January 19, 2009

By L. Carter

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is excellent! It's about enjoying interacting with your child, verbal or not. It's about respecting your child for who he or she is, and helping him/her become more socially interactive, not about finding a "cure." I highly recommend this book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Book!! July 29, 2008

By Live2read

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was the answer to my prayers. If you want to learn more about how we can improve communication skills, it all starts here. We were concerned because our grandson was not speaking yet (2.5) and was frequently avoiding eye contact. This book gives you easy to understand principles and exercises to help increase interaction with a child, and WOW - he has made tremendous strides in communicating with sounds, gestures, eye contact and big smiles. Great Great book!