Helping Children with Autism Learn: Treatment Approaches for Parents and Professionals [Hardcover]

Bryna Siegel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 5, 2003

Bryna Siegel gives parents of autistic children what they need most: hope. Her first book, The World of the Autistic Child, became an instant classic, illuminating the inaccessible minds of afflicted children. Now she offers an equally insightful, thoroughly practical guide to treating the learning disabilities associated with this heartbreaking disorder.

The trouble with treating autism, Siegel writes, is that it is a spectrum disorder--a combination of a number of symptoms and causes. To one extent or another, it robs the child of social bonds, language, and intimacy--but the extent varies dramatically in each case. The key is to understand each case of autism as a discrete set of learning disabilities, each of which must be treated individually. Siegel explains how to take an inventory of a child's particular disabilities, breaks down the various kinds unique to autism, discusses our current knowledge about each, and reviews the existing strategies for treating them. There is no simple cure for this multifarious disorder, she writes; instead, an individual program, with a unique array of specific treatments, must be constructed for each child. She gives practical guidance for fashioning such a program, empowering parents to take the lead in their child's treatment. At the same time, she cautions against the proliferating, but questionable, treatments hawked to afflicted families. She knows the panic to do something, anything, to help an autistic child, and she offers parents reassurance and support as well as sensible advice, combining knowledge from experience, theory and research.

For parents, autism in a child is heartbreaking. But it need not be overwhelming. Bryna Siegel offers a new understanding, and a practical, thoughtful approach that will give parents new hope.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Besides writing in an accessible and often lighthearted style, Siegel has established an excellent and clearly defined structure for each chapter, providing a concise overview, thorough descriptions, and conclusions that help bridge the gap between readers with different backgrounds and familiarity with ASD."--Library Journal (starred review)

"Excels at showing what parents and educators need to do to reach autistic children. She includes a valuable section on having successful individualized educational programs (IEPs), the standard for children with special needs."--Library Journal (Collection Development for Autism)

"This book contains an abundance of clearly written, easy to understand information for educating the child with autism."--Temple Gradin, author of Thinking in Pictures

"This is a very positive book--sensitive to the dilemmas that children with autism face and positive about their ability to learn and adapt. It focuses on solutions to the challenges that autism presents, solutions that lead to new learning and adapting. Siegel's conversational style of language makes the book highly accessible for parents, teachers, and the various interventionists who serve children with autism. Her description of the matrix of abilities and disabilities--how the core neuropsychological features of autism come together to create patterns of strengths and weaknesses--demystifies some of the puzzle of autism. She draws the outline of the separate pieces and shows how they fit together to form both the familiar pattern of autism that clinicians recognize but also the individual profile that defines each individual person with autism."--Sally Rogers, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California Davis Medical Center

"Bryna Siegel has made a thoughtful and learned analysis of the unique and perplexing learning strengths and weaknesses exemplified by the autism spectrum. Her book makes a valuable contribution to parents and professionals searching for clarification."--Eric Schopler, Founder and Co-Director, Division TEACCH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"The landscape of educational and treatment options for children with autism spectrum disorders is complex and often overwhelming for parents and professionals. Drawing from her many years of experience, Dr. Siegel provides a helpful guide for making decisions about directions in educational programming."--Barry M. Prizant, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Director, Childhood Communication Services and Adjunct Professor, Center for the Study of Human Development, Brown University

"Gives practical guidance for fashioning ... a program, empowering parents to take the lead in their child's treatment."--Adolescence

About the Author

Bryna Siegel is Director of the Autism Clinic at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, and is the author of The World of the Autistic Child, which sold over 50,000 copies.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195138112
• ISBN-13: 978-0195138115
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Often misses the real point, simplifies, December 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Helping Children with Autism Learn: Treatment Approaches for Parents and Professionals (Hardcover)

As an educator of children, adolescents and adults with autism for over 20 years, I read with dismay Dr. Siegel's simplification of many behaviors exhibited by people with autism. She often makes statements as though they are fact, such as the "why" of many behaviors. At first, it seemed to be an occasional error, but after reading and reading, the book clearly makes arrogant statements about children, parents and education of those with autism which are just plain wrong or strongly misleads with assumptions, rather than factual knowledge.

It dismays me to think that a parent, particularly a parent of a young child with autism, would take these statements as absolute fact, simply because they are written by a Dr. Too often, these highly vulnerable parents come away either with false hope, or with utter dispair about what they have just read in her book.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars May have good educational information but is medically very misleading., June 9, 2007

By 

Grandma "Kathy" (Ocala, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Helping Children with Autism Learn: Treatment Approaches for Parents and Professionals (Paperback)

I would NOT recommend this book...it is dangerously misleading in places.

Quote from this book: "Similarly, retrospective statistics for US sample have led
the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institutes of
Health, the Institute of Medicine, and the World Health Organization
all to conclude that vaccines do not cause autism. The "probable
cause" finger was pointed at thimerisol [SIC! correct spelling is thimerasol], a mercury-
containing preservative in vaccines. However, the kind of mercury in
vaccines is different from the "bad" mercury in contaminated foods.
Mercury is a chemical element, like hydrogen or nitrogen--which might
be bad for you, too--and like them, it needs to be studied in the
form of the specific compound being indited."

I don't know whether she is disingenuous or just simply ignorant.
Comparing a toxic heavy metal to hydrogen or nitrogen?? "BAD
mercury"??? There is no GOOD mercury. Ethyl and methyl mercury are both dangerous neurotoxins. And I will not go into all the flaws in the epidemiological studies.

Here's another one:

"Be aware that some practitioners have offered the idea that a child
who eats a lot of one food is "craving" it for either some good or
some bad reason. There is no evidence to support theories of these
sorts. There is also no evidence to support the idea that children
with autism have more food allergies or are more likely to react to
foods with gluten (like wheat products) or casein(like dairy
products). What "research" there is on these things is available
only on the Internet and in books by parents who feel it "cured"
their child or doctors who have "invented" a new diet. There are no
reports in peer-reviewed scientific journals."

Oh, yes, there are. There are peer-reviewed studies showing that there are many more autistic children with IgA deficiency than the general public, there are studies of opioid peptides from milk and wheat, and there is the newly recognized syndrome of gluten ataxia reported in the medical literature. Gluten ataxia results from antibodies that attack not only the gut but the Purkinje cells in the cerebellum, which affect balance and are also affected in autism. I'd skip this book, and certainly not recommend it to any parent of a newly diagnosed child. It may be useful for some educational considerations comparing ABA and TEACCH and various forms of inclusion, but with the misleading information on medical issues I think this book is dangerous.

My PhD is from Cornell, and I worked in the Department of Nutrition there as a Research Associate for 7 years. Of course, it is hard to find peer-reviewed articles on thimerasol if you cannot spell the word. If you do purchase this book, please ignore any statements regarding medical issues.

4.0 out of 5 stars Helping Children with Autism Learn, November 12, 2011

By 

An Aussie educator and parent - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Helping Children with Autism Learn: Treatment Approaches for Parents and Professionals (Paperback)

Excellent sourcebook for educators and parents. The text is organized so you can go to specific chapters that apply to your needs without having to read from beginning to end. However, I do recommend reading the entire text. Siegel explains current theories on the origins of autism and addresses the validity of "possible causes" that have been floating around. For a teacher, the heart of the book are the heaps of methods to use with students. For parents, it is a breath of fresh aire. Siegel's writing style is very reassuring and is packed with her clinical experiences and research. After reading this book you will certainly be better prepared to advocate for your child's treatment needs.