eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
A review of the current science of identifying and treating autism spectrum disorders in young children examines research issues, approaches to assessment, and developmental, behavioral, and medical intervention models.
"...I did not want to see problems where there werent any, because I was more aware of aspergers than the average parent. Also, teaching children with special needs is quite different than accepting that your beautiful daughter has such needs- a label just makes it all sound so final..." Aspergers is a hidden disability; as it is not a physical disability it does not register automatic understanding. It is a series of developmental disorders known as The Triad of Impairment, including: communication, social interaction and inflexible thought/imagination. My child is aspergers, she does not have aspergers- it is not an infectious disease; there is nothing wrong with her- she merely has different needs. A label has a tendency to emphasize the negative, not the positive and the person. This book details Elizabeths journey (and that of many families) but also provides valuable information for all families of children touched by aspergers. I have found many aspergers books to be of a clinical nature and not accessible to parents who have just been given a diagnosis; often without subsequent advice and support. In my experience, a diagnosis can be like someone has thrown a grenade at you and is then running away- you are left to deal with the fall-out! Hopefully, this book is accessible to all and will help people- it has certainly helped me and when Elizabeth is older, I hope it will explain a few things to her. I also hope that it will enlighten professionals who work with her (and others like her.) My point is that I am the closest person to my daughter and I dont fully know or understand her. How can they? I honestly don't expect them to do so; I do expect them to have an awareness of the condition and to understand that a child who is aspergers has particular needs, even if they are not always apparent.
For many years, the diagnosis of autism has centered on a child's social interaction—from poor eye contact to lack of language skills. Although the autism community agrees that early intervention is key to effective treatment, the telltale signs of this disorder usually don't reveal themselves until the age of two or three. But what if it were possible to detect the potential for autism within the first year of life? That is the basis of Osnat and Philip Teitelbaum's book, Does Your Baby Have Autism? This dedicated wife-and-husband team has worked for nearly two decades to develop ways of detecting signs of potential autism or Asperger's syndrome by examining a child's early motor development. By studying the patterns of righting, sitting, crawling, and walking in typical infants, and comparing them with those of children who were later diagnosed with autism, the authors have been able to pinpoint movement patterns that appear to be the precursors of autism and Asperger's. Does Your Baby Have Autism? first provides general information about the history of autism, followed by a discussion of The Ladder of Motor Development. Each of four chapters then examines one motor milestone--righting, sitting, crawling, or walking--contrasting typical development with atypical development so that it's easy to recognize unusual patterns of movement. Also included is a unique thirty-second Tilt Test--easy to perform at home--which helps reveal a balance problem characteristic of children with autism. Finally, parents are guided in finding professional help for a child whose motor skills may indicate a problem. There is a way to detect signs of autism early in a child's life, when therapy can do the most good. Does Your Baby Have Autism? holds the key to a brighter future for children and their families.
Shortlisted for the 2019 Mark Lynton History Prize A groundbreaking exploration of the chilling history behind an increasingly common diagnosis. Hans Asperger, the pioneer of autism and Asperger syndrome in Nazi Vienna, has been celebrated for his compassionate defense of children with disabilities. But in this groundbreaking book, prize-winning historian Edith Sheffer exposes that Asperger was not only involved in the racial policies of Hitler’s Third Reich, he was complicit in the murder of children. As the Nazi regime slaughtered millions across Europe during World War Two, it sorted people according to race, religion, behavior, and physical condition for either treatment or elimination. Nazi psychiatrists targeted children with different kinds of minds—especially those thought to lack social skills—claiming the Reich had no place for them. Asperger and his colleagues endeavored to mold certain "autistic" children into productive citizens, while transferring others they deemed untreatable to Spiegelgrund, one of the Reich’s deadliest child-killing centers. In the first comprehensive history of the links between autism and Nazism, Sheffer uncovers how a diagnosis common today emerged from the atrocities of the Third Reich. With vivid storytelling and wide-ranging research, Asperger’s Children will move readers to rethink how societies assess, label, and treat those diagnosed with disabilities.
As a group, babies later diagnosed as autistic are found to have more complications during gestation and delivery than their normal siblings and others. In addition to all these complications, infants later diagnosed on the autistic spectrum have a two-fold rate of residence in neonatal intensive care units. Over the past 50 years, ever younger previously non-viable very low weight babies are being kept alive, some born as much as four months before term. However, it is becoming apparent that miraculous procedures to counteract organ immaturity and prolonged incubation contribute to a new gamut of hitherto unknown forms of neurological damage. With pregnancy curtailed, prematurely separated mothers and their babies both experience a prolonged state of limbo, with the fragile infant being exposed to excruciating medical interventions and overwhelming stimulation. International researchers and clinicians renowned for their work in the field of early autism come together to resolve queries around the long debate on the development and resolution of autism.
A guide to Asperger's syndrome describes what it is and how it is diagnosed, along with information on such topics as bullying, emotions, language, movement, cognitive ability, and long-term relationships.
The DSM-5 (2013) classifies all autism-related disorders, including Asperger's, under the heading "autism spectrum disorder." This book argues that this lumping together is unhelpful for clinicians. Instead, finer diagnostic distinctions are helpful to clinicians who treat children with Asperger's. This book spells out in detail the psychodynamics the author has repeatedly uncovered in Asperger's children, adolescents, and adults, and explores the central factors in the aetiology of Asperger's Disorder. There is a section suggesting how Asperger's can be adequately diagnosed from "the outside" (using external descriptive features) and more importantly from "the inside" (based on internal psychodynamic processes). Finally, there is a section outlining psychodynamic treatment approaches to Asperger's children, based on their psychodynamics and on which type of Asperger's is present. The book includes numerous case illustrations to help the reader appreciate the central psychodynamics that are regularly observed in Asperger's children, namely splitting of the self into victim and bully aspects, and projective identification into remote objects.
My Baby Can Dance is for anyone who needs a reminder about what makes social interaction so wonderful and why sometimes, the simplest forms of communication can lead to the most wonderful encounters.For parents of children affected by autism, it is hard to identify exactly when their child slipped away. For one mother it was after planting flowers, for another it was one night in his sleep, for many more it was already too late to say goodbye. The stories in this book are of families that are all very different, and yet, their struggles are strikingly similar. They have made mistakes, they have cried and laughed and prayed. And, in the end they have done it all for the love of a child. Along with the remarkable stories of RDI? families is a message of hope that in their own time and in their own way these children will find their way back home. Eleven stories of families that live autism day by day using the Relationship Development Intervention? Program. Introduction by Dr. Steven E. Gutstein.
This completely revised and substantially expanded new edition embraces new developments in this rapidly developing field. Every chapter has been rewritten with the addition of new material, and a new final chapter on `Putting the Pieces Together' reflects the authors' conviction that the complexity of autism means that many kinds of information are valuable and need to be taken into account in providing therapy or teaching for children with autism. Other chapters, updated from the first edition, include a description of the latest information on the findings of brain research (put into the context of the development of the human brain and its effect on communication in early childhood), and the contributions of music therapy and psychoanalysis. A very much enlarged chapter on educational provision for children with autism and Asperger's Syndrome provides information on the latest methods for improving the learning of these children, to give them the best possible preparation for a life of greater autonomy and maximum self-satisfaction in the pleasure of human company. New appendices summarise medical diagnostic systems, checklists and questionnaires for identifying autism, and the glossary has been considerably expanded. The wealth of up-to-date information provided will be invaluable not only for researchers and students but also for psychologists, teachers and other professionals, and parents, carers and family members in search of comprehensive and helpful information.
Synthesizing an explosion of recent research, this book presents dramatic advances in understanding and treating autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in very young children. Leading authorities describe the innovative tools and methods that are enabling clinicians to more effectively identify 0- to 5-year-olds with the disorder and those at risk for related problems. Chapters discuss the early core symptoms and co-occurring characteristics of ASD, the best diagnostic instruments, and lessons learned from large-scale screening and surveillance, including sibling studies. The book reviews evidence-based interventions and explores practical issues in treatment of young children and their families.
