Customer Reviews

Targeting Autism: What We Know, Don't Know, and Can do to Help Young Children with Autism and Related Disorders, Updated Edition

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a parent, you immediately try to become an informed consumer regarding the needs of your child. Targeting Autism depletes the emotionalism and gives it's reader a good overview of the topic and current therapy. Targeting Autism is a good beginner book, a great navigator in the autism maze.

I wish this book were out a year ago when we first received our diagnosis. We sorted through dozens and dozens of books to get the information contained in this book. It is well written and well organized. A very good place to begin when considering what help to seek for your child. What Cohen does not give you is a sense of how incredibly difficult it is to set up or get on the waiting list for many of these treatment options. You get the diagnosis, then they usher you out the door suggesting you call a program or two listed on a badly xeroxed handout. When you call, you are likely to deal with some sullen graduate student who grudgingly answers questions and then tells you the waiting list is 18 months, and that they don't except children under three (though EVERYONE tells you that early intervention is key.) And as you are considering what might work to help your child, you discover you are in the middle of a pissing match between the followers of Doctor I'm-Important and Dr. I'm-God. They call each other charlatans and evildoers, and you as a parent are left adrift, wondering who to trust. I'd have liked a bit more of that perspective in the book. It's that perspective--even more than the story of recovery--which made Catherine Maurice's book ("Let Me Hear Your Voice") so powerful for me. She seemed to be living our lives. Cohen goes out of her way to undercut Maurice as perhaps too-good-to-be-true, but she admits that there aren't many other approaches that seem to have the effectiveness of the intensive in-home behavioral approach. We're open to what will help our child. And this book is a good way to find out what's out there right now. Despite my reservations, I recommend the book highly.

After reading several other books on autism, I recommend this one as an up-to-date summary. One source for current "medical" understanding of autism. Excellent overview and perspective on multiple treatment approaches. This is a super first or only book for genearl information on autism.

First off, she defines autism in layman's terms and with first person testimonials.

Secondly, she provides a life cycle view of autism, so that you have SOME idea of what the future might hold for your child.

Third, she describes how families cope with autism, that some become driven, others fall apart, others adopt a "Holland" approach.

Then she discusses treatments, including a solid analysis of educational approaches such as Lovaas (leans positive), mainstreaming, TEACH, DAP, etc... and non-traditional approaches, such as AIT, FC, etc...

And she talks about recovery too, the controversy that very term raises. She closes this chapter with a quote that could have come straight out of my own heart: "A parent asked, What if my child remains autistic? What will we do? The best you can - with your love, your skills, and all the resources you can marshal - to help him achieve as independent and joyful a life as possible for him."

Perhaps I love this book because so much of what she writes does articulate what I have felt as I've gone over the different options for my son's interventions.

But also, her testimonials from a wide range of sources really help to illuminate autism as well.

And finally, her book is very REASONED in tone.

The only thing missing is a chapter that summarizes her thoughts about what she thinks parents should do. I mean really, most parents are reading these books for ADVICE! Even if parents eventually do something else, its always nice to have a plan laid out that you can either agree with or react against and develop your own. You won't find an action plan here, but the information provided should help you in making one of your own.

My respect for this book grew as I waded through the sea of shrill voices proclaiming that their version or reality beats the competition and only an idiot or an uncaring parent could question that. The occasionally story-like narrative belies the artful teaching the book undertakes. If you suspect (as I do) that vigorous debate, good research, and continued creativity will produce increasingly effective treatments, then we need to encourage more discussions such as Cohen's. If you are a parent (as I am) it helps to turn down the volume a notch and consider the issues dispassionately.

A well researched book by an extremely qualified author. Excellent information on various interventions and treatments. This topic can be quite cut and dry, but this author has a wonderful writing style that makes the topic less clinical. It will appeal to parents, professionals and others interested in Autism. (I am the father of a 7 year old with autism)

Why it should be so hard to find a book that thoughtfully discusses the myriad of autism treatments, I don't know. As a parent of a child diagnosed last year at age three, I appreciate this book.

Thank you Shirley Cohen for writing it. Thank you Amazon, for making it so easy to find.

As a parent af an Autistic son I found this to be very informative and fair as it describes the various intervention models of today. Excellent, quotes from parents, educators, practitioners and Autistic kids and adults. Recommend highly

Very easy to read in layman's terms. As the mother of a four year old with PDD, I would suggest this book as a great book to start off with if your child was diagnosed with autism or pdd. It touches on a lot of areas ABA, schooling etc. without getting to technical. It also has statements and examples made by adults with autism/pdd which I found very interesting.

Concise, very readable, excellent information and insight