Overcoming Autism: Finding the Answers, Strategies, and Hope That Can Transform a [Mass Market Paperback]

Lynn Kern Koegel (Author), Claire LaZebnik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2005

There have been huge advances in our ability to diagnose autism and in the development of effective interventions that can change children’s lives. In this extraordinary book, Lynn Kern Koegel, a leading clinician, researcher, and cofounder of the renowned Autism Research Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, combines her cutting-edge expertise with the everyday perspectives of Claire LaZebnik, a writer whose experience with a son with autism provides a rare window into the disorder. Together, they draw on the highly effective “pivotal response” approach developed at the center to provide concrete ways of improving the symptoms of autism and the emotional struggles that surround it, while reminding readers never to lose sight of the humor that lurks in the disability’s quirkiness or the importance of enjoying your child. From the shock of diagnosis to the step-by-step work with verbal communication, social interaction, self- stimulation, meltdowns, fears, and more, the answers are here-in a book that is as warm and nurturing as it is authoritative.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Clinician Koegel (cofounder of the Autism Research Center at the University of California Santa Barbara) and novelist LaZebnik (Same As It Ever Was), mother of an autistic boy, team up "to show you how intelligent, well-planned early interventions... can improve the symptoms of autism enormously." That doesn't mean that they offer easy remedies to what's practically an epidemic (they estimate 1 in 150 births result in an autistic child). The technique of "applied behavior analysis" (a behavior modification program stressing close observation and positive reinforcement by parents and doctors), say the authors, can reduce the withdrawal and other characteristic behaviors of autism while improving a child's prognosis for intellectual and social development. They organize chapters by behaviors typical of autism, e.g., "Ending the Long Silence"; "Tears, Meltdowns, Aggression, and Self-Injury"; and "Self Stimulation." The coauthors take turns in each chapter, first discussing symptoms clinically and then anecdotally from a parent's perspective. Koegel believes disruptiveness and self-involvement are often attempts to communicate, and suggests ways to tailor replacements for such conduct. LaZebnik adds soothing, often wry first-person advice. As the mother of a boy who "was entirely nonverbal at age two and a half," LaZebnik's good news leavens Koegel's sometimes daunting program of behavior analysis, positive modeling and incentives. Encouraging but realistic, the authors' humane, proactive tactics toward improving autistic behavior will interest parents willing to take a labor-intensive, teaching approach to their child's disorder.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A truly remarkable book... I recommend it very highly. (Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., Yale University) An outstanding book... comprehensive, calm, poignant, and surprisingly funny. (Wendy Mogel, author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee) Overcoming Autism provides solid information and a practical headstart toward understanding children's needs and managing their behavior effectively. (Bruce J. Masek, Ph.D., ABPP, Clinical Director, Child and Adolescent Pyschiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School) Truly remarkable... I recommend it very highly. (Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., Yale University) An excellent, practical book for both parents and teachers. (Temple Grandin, Ph.D., author of Thinking in Pictures)

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143034685
• ISBN-13: 978-0143034681
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, an autism book for the rest of us, December 11, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Overcoming Autism: Finding the Answers, Strategies, and Hope That Can Transform a Child's Life (Hardcover)

I've read probably hundreds of books about autism spectrum disorders since having a child diagnosed with such. This book marks the first time I felt I was reading about a parent like myself. I almost cheered out loud early in the book when the author with a child with autism said she was not a tigress, not the type to confront any and all to help her child, just a parent that loved her child very much and was devoted to helping him. So many books written by parents about autism are all about how far they have gone to help their child, and generally by following some quite narrow path, such as dietary intervention, ABA, etc. I am always struck by how so little mention is made of any other children in the family, or of the great aspects of their child OUTSIDE the autism. In this book, I really felt like I was reading about a whole family and a WHOLE CHILD---one with interests that while they might be unusual, were still kind of cool and not just obsessions to be gotten rid of.

The clinical advice here is very well done. It's practical to the extreme---right down to giving ideas about helping children know what to talk about during lunch at school (hint---all kids love to discuss how gross some foods are!) While it is plainly said that helping your autistic child needs to take place full time, you are told how to do this in the course of continuing to live your life.

I do think this book would be more helpful to those with verbal children. While it does contain some advice for the non-verbal child, it seems to be more aimed at those with verbal and middle to higher functioning children.

It meant so much to me that in the personal narratives, there was such a sense of reality---for example, although we all know how we are supposed to deal with night wakings, we might not all be primed to follow through in the middle of the night!

It may be fascinating to read about the latest "miracle" to "cure" autism. However, I think the reality is much more what is contained here---practical little things and big things we can do day after day after day to help our precious and valued children.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best practical book on autism I've found so far, April 9, 2005

By 

Derrick Peterman (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Overcoming Autism: Finding the Answers, Strategies, and Hope That Can Transform a (Mass Market Paperback)

As the father on an autistic child, I've bought a few books that claimed to be practical guides for parents, but unfortunately, come across as dry academic tomes about setting up an entire special needs curriculum. I've also attended a seminar on applied behavioral analysis (ABA) which came across as turning my son into a "trained monkey", rather really overcoming the problem. And thoughtful friends and family members have provided me with inspirational stories about maniacally devoted parents of "cured" autistic children, who have way more intensity and resources that I could hope to commit to the problem, and therefore, leave me with feelings of hopelessness rather than inspiration.

So it was with great relief and comfort reading Overcoming Autism, which takes a sensible ABA approach to overcoming autism, and provides a number of practical remedies to many common difficulties parents face with autistic children. The book is well organized, and Dr. Koegel is highly experienced and respected in the field of autistic child development. A strength of the book is that many helpful case studies are provided about particular problems autistic children have. And the solution is always sensible, and something the parents can easily implement. LaZebnick's personal account with her own son, who was effectively overcome most of his autism, really fleshed out the book and provided a well needed emotional voice throughout all the factual information.

The book is definitely written from a woman's perspective, and a few times, I was almost asking myself "Where's the father" while reading. I would have like more of a father's perspective or discussion of the father's role, but that is a minor quibble. I expect to be consulting this book often as I raise my son.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars THIS BOOK IS NOT AT ALL HELPFUL...., June 14, 2009

By 

J. Turner (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Overcoming Autism: Finding the Answers, Strategies, and Hope That Can Transform a Child's Life (Hardcover)

This book is not at all helpful if you have a child who is less than a high functioning autistic. I read the entire book and tried to come at it from the perspective of both my children who have these issues, and not a single topic or question and answer would have applied to either of my two children. Ms. Koegel's answer to stims is to try to distract a child and get him to do something else. Her answer to the question of melt-downs and tantrums was to make sure the child wasn't anxious or hungry or trying to get attention. As if we parents wouldn't have thought of that already, tried every distraction imagineable, tried to make sure the child wasn't hungry or tired, or whatever, and still find no answers to the screaming, the stim-ing, etc.?

Her answer to the question of the grocery store was one of the worst. The mother asked "I can't take my daughter to the grocery store because of her bad behavior, but I have to do the shopping, so what can I do?" Her answer assumed, for one thing, that the mother had access to a care provider she could leave the child with until that child was behaving better. Her answer did not take into account any of the issues a child faces at a store. The crowds, the lights, the smells, the noise, the overwhelming sensory overload. Just buying the child a toy at the end of the trip if she behaves is what you would do with a NORMAL child, not an autistic one.

In fact, that is what is wrong with this book. Her ideas to "distract" a child from a stim or repetitive behavior, to explain to the child why this or that is not an appropriate behavior, etc., all assumes that the child can understand you. All of her interventions and ideas seemed geared toward pretty normal children who had a few problems adjusting or fitting into a social setting. I kept shaking my head and thinking, "Is this really a book about autistic children? None of this would remotely have worked with my child!!"

The worst possible part of the book for me was on page 211 when Ms. Koegel is explaining why she is in favor of full inclusion and having an autistic child in a classroom with regular children. She says, "Forget what you've heard about children being mean to each other. They aren't." Huh???? This woman lives in a world of her own making. Put an autistic child who is rocking back and forth grunting or flapping their hands or who thinks learning about ANYTHING besides tornadoes and weather is just STUPID, and believe me, they get laughed at and sometimes worse. My boys have been called "retards", been beat on, picked on, etc. Not all the children are mean, but to make the statement as fact that children are not mean to someone who is different is utterly ridiculous.

I had another problem with her approach to stims. She advocated telling the child that his stim looked silly and made him look different from everybody else. What about his self esteem? To have the grown ups tell him that his stim looks silly and he doesn't want to be different made me downright angry. Would mine have even understood what it meant to look silly? To them anyone NOT doing it was probably silly...or worse!

My oldest is now almost 18 and doing well. My younger son is still struggling but making progress, and I know from having been through this before that it will turn out okay. But very little...well, almost nothing, actually, in this book would have helped me with either of them.