Customer Reviews

A Positive Approach to Autism

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This is indeed a very positive book by Stella Waterhouse, who has spend many years teaching children with learning disabilities and emotional problems, but after providing residential care and training to teenagers with autism, she began research that resulted in this publication. The book is divided into eight chapters. The first is a historic review of autism followed by theories and ideas with examples from the various schools of thought about autism. These thoughts are then analysed and discussed resulting in several hypotheses. It is proposed that there are different types of autisme: perceptual autism or Asperger's syndrome, reactive autism or reactive Asperger's syndrome, delayed Asperger's syndrome and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), induced autism, frontal lobe syndrome and secondary autism. The following chapters deal with the various diagnostic tools, treatment alternatives and implications for education, residential care, family and spouses. There are also some very useful additions, such as glossary and addresses. The argument of the book is that children with autism are not mentally handicapped, but rather normal children, whose problems leave them isolated and unable to express or understand even their own feelings due to a special response to anxiety. An interesting review for parents or professionals working with autism.

Professor Joav Merrick, MD, DMSc Medical Director, Division for Mental Retardation

This is indeed a very positive book by Stella Waterhouse, who has spend many years teaching children with learning disabilities and emotional problems, but after providing residential care and training to teenagers with autism, she began research that resulted in this publication. The book is divided into eight chapters. The first is a historic review of autism followed by theories and ideas with examples from the various schools of thought about autism. These thoughts are then analysed and discussed resulting in several hypotheses. It is proposed that there are different types of autisme: perceptual autism or Asperger's syndrome, reactive autism or reactive Asperger's syndrome, delayed Asperger's syndrome and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), induced autism, frontal lobe syndrome and secondary autism. The following chapters deal with the various diagnostic tools, treatment alternatives and implications for education, residential care, family and spouses. There are also some very useful additions, such as glossary and addresses. The argument of the book is that children with autism are not mentally handicapped, but rather normal children, whose problems leave them isolated and unable to express or understand even their own feelings due to a special response to anxiety. An interesting review for parents or professionals working with autism.

Professor Joav Merrick, MD, DMSc Medical Director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel. E-mail: jmerrick@aquanet.co.il