Product Description

"The voices here confirm what I've always suspected: everyone is part of one large continuum, and the approaches and insights recounted here can help any parent, any educator, any person deal with any child—or, for that matter, any other person—more effectively and with more compassion. I only wish I'd encountered earlier this cadre of experienced and caring individuals whose humor and resourcefulness represent clearly how best to love and nurture a child."—Cynthia Nitz Ris, J.D., Ph.D., University of Cincinnati

Through sensitive, sometimes humorous, experienced-based writing from teachers, clinicians, and parent activists in the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) community, this book will help educators and others to better understand the world inhabited by ASD children. The stories contained in the book will inspire and inform readers who are working day-to-day with children in the autism spectrum, providing valuable insights into what makes these kids tick and useful information on how they communicate, learn, and succeed.

Robert Parish (Cincinnati, OH) is an award-winning journalist with four nationally broadcast public TV documentaries about Autism Spectrum Disorders to his credit, as well as more than 100 digital video projects about ASD for the educational market.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175256 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Review
Parish is an award-winning journalist with four nationally broadcast public TV documentaries about ASD to his credit. Filled with humor and hope, the essays give information on how people with ASD communicate and learn and what it takes to help them reach their full potential. (ASAP, 06/01/08)

From the Inside Flap

Embracing Autism

Since it was first identified in 1943, autism has confounded and frustrated the medical and educational communities. To date, there is no agreed-upon cause and there is no cure. While the physiological aberrations that create autism spectrum disorders (ASD) remain a mystery, the personal perspective of those who live and work with children and adults in the spectrum can be illuminating.

Embracing Autism presents sensitive, sometimes humorous, experience-based stories from teachers, clinicians, and parent activists within the autism community. With insight and heart, this book offers parents and educators a way to better understand the world inhabited by ASD children and adults. Each story is compelling, inspirational, and informational—providing a vital and helpful perspective for anyone who is working or living day-to-day with ASD.

Embracing Autism gives readers encouragement for navigating the uncharted territory of working with an ASD child. As the book explains, while teachers and parents can be well prepared in autism approaches and educational training, they must also be willing to let go of expectations—they must get down to the basic task of getting to know the person beyond the diagnosis.

Filled with passion and hope, Embracing Autism shows what makes people with ASD tick and gives useful information on how they communicate, learn, and ultimately what it takes to help them succeed.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Embracing Autism

"While much has been written about the disability that is autism, little has been written about the people who live 'in the spectrum.' With this wonderful book Robert Parish has, with grace, humor, and hope, taken us beyond the diagnosis and into the real lives of individuals with autism and their families. Highly recommended for parents and professionals alike."
—Peter F. Gerhardt, Ed.D., president and chair, Scientific Council, Organization for Autism Research, Baltimore, Maryland

"This useful book moves beyond the normal hysteria about autism to find parents and professionals working with and enjoying autistic kids. At once pragmatic and celebratory, it finds the balance that will lead to greater success and happiness for all."
—Ralph James Savarese, author, Reasonable People: A Memoir of Autism and Adoption and professor of American literature and disability studies at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa

"Having the privilege to know Robert and many of the book's contributors first-hand it fills me with great pleasure to read their stories, to hear their voices, to be lifted by their passion and purpose. Robert has done a stunning job in assembling a masterful collection of parents and professionals to share their lives and bring a far greater and deeper appreciation to what has been the narrow footpath of autism understanding."
—Edmund C. Arranga, founder, Autism One (autismone.org)

"The Dan Marino Foundation wishes to recognize the tireless efforts of Robert Parish in his unending devotion to his son and all children with autism. With the writing and editing of his book, Embracing Autism, Robert is giving hope to all parents struggling with their child's diagnosis of autism."
—Susan Morantes, director of Outreach and Program Support,The Dan Marino Center, Miami, Florida

Customer Reviews

Fabulous Insight
Being a parent of a child with autism, I love the positive perspective this book gives professionals and parents. This book overlooks the stigmas and stereotypes and focuses on acceptance and the unique qualities our children bring to the world. Rob Parish has compiled so many perspectives by so many levels of this "disorder." This is a must read for everyone new to the world of autism!

Spectrum Perspectives
This is an excellent book that includes interviews with parents, educators and clinicians about people with autism. The book opens with a parent/clinician who interviews a couple whose grown son had severe autism and was unable to care for himself. In a sad twist of irony, that same interviewer found herself answering similar questions about son Jacob, who has severe autism.

I like the way each personal account describes the behavior of the person with autism and how that behavior impacts on the lives of all whom they encounter. My favorite part was the chapter on Shawn Lyons, an extraordinarily bright young man with Asperger's Syndrome, the spectrum parter to autism.

Parts of Shawn's story were funny. I loved the very moving part of his impromptu joining a church production of the Nativity. Instead of being turned away and ordered back to his seat, the cast members allowed him to come on stage. When told that the chorus was going to sing, Shawn somehow got everyone, audience included to participate. That was my favorite part.

The only thing I didn't like was the word "perseverate," which is a damning and damaging word. "Excessive repetition," or "special interests" are far preferable and certainly speak to tolerance whereas that other word simply does not. The use of that word cost this book one star. Luckily Shawn dodged the bullet of just how very harmful that word really is. I am sorry it was ever applied to him in any way, shape and form, especially during his social skills lessons. It is a word best permanently retired.

On the other hand, Shawn's aides came up with some innovative ideas to help him learn how to "read" other people. On one occasion when Shawn was sharing his special interest in botany, his aide gave an exaggerated yawn and politely told Shawn that her brain could not hold as much information as his could about botany and that whenever one's eyes glaze over or they look away, fidget or yawn, those are good indicators that he has belabored his topic. Shawn was then able to apply that concept in other areas.

The title of this book speaks to tolerance. The idea of embracing this sensori-neurological condition is very much one of acceptance, one of recognizing the gifts that people on the spectrum have to offer.

Outstanding Resource for Parents and Friends of Children in the Autism Spectrum
Embracing Autism: Connecting and Communicating with Children in the Autism Spectrum

Embracing Autism is a well-written compilation of life experiences, struggles and inspirational portraits of families and professionals who have lived with and improved the lives of children and adults in the autism spectrum. I heartily recommend it to families and friends of those parents who struggle with the diagnosis and are grappling with what this diagnosis means.

It will certainly help many to see the diverse nature of this diagnosis and help parents to view their children not as "impaired" but as "unique."

I do not have a child in the spectrum, but do have friends who are struggling with the diagnosis in their families. It helped me to view autism in a new light and unexpectedly, it also gave me inspiration in dealing with my own children outside of the spectrum.

The book certainly speaks to the frustrations of meltdowns, parents struggling with diagnosis and treatment, and the need for more continued education of those of us who do not have a child "in the spectrum." Our culture needs brave souls such as these to make themselves transparent, so that people, like I, can understand how to react, love and support those who live with this challenge.