Customer Reviews

Living and Loving With Asperger Syndrome: Family Viewpoints

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you have a friend or family member with aspergers syndrome you simply must read this book. It does a masterful job of helping us "normal" people not only understand someone with AS but also suggests simple adjusments we can make that mean the world to them. I have a close friend with AS and after reading this book I have learned new ways to truly enjoy a wonderful healthy friendship.

I found this book very interesting and entertaining. The McCabes did a great job telling how, as a family, they learned about Asperger and how they've adapted to living with it.

Stories from their lives made the book easy to read. It was even funny in some places. I think the McCabes did a great job putting their thoughts, observations, and opinions in the book.

It's a must read for anyone who lives with someone with Asperger Syndrome or even knows anyone with it. It helped me understand the syndrome better and what the person with it must be dealing with on a minute by minute basis.

The McCabes put a very human side to the reality of having, and also living with someone who has, Asperger Syndrome. Laugh and cry with them as they share their lives with the readers so that we can understand the world through their eyes.
A must read for anyone with an association with an AS person. Helpful also if you have recently become aware of AS in your own life, you are not alone. An easy read. Thank you, McCabes, for sharing your lives.

I very much enjoyed this book, and found a lot of truth and encouragement in it.
But as a person who has Asperger Syndrome herself, I disagree with some of the generalizations the McCabes use. While it may be true for Patrick that he needs to do several things at once, for instance, it is entirely impossible for me to do more than one thing at a time. Multitasking will often lead to total confusion, and eventually extreme irritability or shutdown in me.
I am also not very organized, I am completely unable to keep my house tidy. And while I fit their concept of Aspies having a high IQ in the gifted range, my sister, who also has AS has normal intelligence (on the other hand, she IS very organized).
So, while all they say is true for Patrick, his gifts, work and relationships, Aspies are individuals, too, and quite different from each other.
That said, I do recommend this book to anyone who has a friend or family member with AS, as it is very helpful in explaining how people with AS think, perceive their surroundings and feel different, and how to make family life pleasant and loving by respecting the AS person (and in turn, the person with AS trying his/her best, to understand and love their family and friends).

Many books on this topic are not as positive as this or have a succesful Asperger individual writing it! However, I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure the child and wife who also wrote this book are also mildly disabled too (not necessarilly Asperger's but possibly) and the family is just oblivious of this. That doesn't disvalue anything of what any of them say at all; however if they missed this they missed putting other very important details that should have been covered in this brief book also. If you have Asperger's I hope you can relate with what I'm saying especially after reading this book! Including stating that they know although the author was this way that that doesn't mean they think all people with this syndrome are. They never said they all were but they didn't say the opposite and for some reader's especially people with the syndrome I bet they need to here that in order to not assume they thought otherwise. This book can be useful but, it isn't a complete book on the topic for those just beginning to learn about this syndrome. That's not what I expected or I think what the book is met to be, but the advice could be more Asperger Specific. It is very general good advice for people to take on how to deal with many people not just those with Asperger's. And if you know quite a bit on this topic don't expect to learn anything new. If you want a book on positive Asperger's with the best roll model defiantly get Diagnosing Jefferson instead or additional to this book! It's better especially if you want a more thourough, complete, or slightly more advanced book on the topic. But, to use this book for the man and family as a role model to prove Asperger's can succeeed in the write environment surrounded with the right attidutes both personally and professionally is defiantly a good reason to get this book! The author's a manager for crying out loud!

This book shows some of the day-to-day struggles within a family with one of the members having Asperger Syndrome. Yet the family does a pretty convincing job of communicating that AS has its positive side as well! This is an upbeat helpful book for all who wish to understand their friend, co-worker or loved one with AS.

While this author does an excellent job of providing personal accounts of having Asperger's, which is a neurobiological condition on the Autism spectrum, there are too many inconsistencies and fallacious claims this book endorses.

Autism and Asperger's (a/A) is NOT a disease. Autism and Asperger's are neurobiological conditions that affect sensory processing; communication and often impede social development. The very suggestion that the a/A spectrum is a disease is just not true and is patently ludicrous.

While I can't give this work a ringing endorsement, I can say that if it has helped others, particularly in intrafamilial relationships understand what people on the autism spectrum contend with, then it has served a good purpose.