Helping Children with Autism Learn: Treatment Approaches for Parents and Professionals - Hardcover

Siegel, Bryna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195138112 ISBN 13: 9780195138115

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2003

Synopsis

Bryna Siegel gives parents of autistic children what they need most: hope. Her first book, The World of the Autistic Child, became an instant classic, illuminating the inaccessible minds of afflicted children. Now she offers an equally insightful, thoroughly practical guide to treating the learning disabilities associated with this heartbreaking disorder.

The trouble with treating autism, Siegel writes, is that it is a spectrum disorder--a combination of a number of symptoms and causes. To one extent or another, it robs the child of social bonds, language, and intimacy--but the extent varies dramatically in each case. The key is to understand each case of autism as a discrete set of learning disabilities, each of which must be treated individually. Siegel explains how to take an inventory of a child's particular disabilities, breaks down the various kinds unique to autism, discusses our current knowledge about each, and reviews the existing strategies for treating them. There is no simple cure for this multifarious disorder, she writes; instead, an individual program, with a unique array of specific treatments, must be constructed for each child. She gives practical guidance for fashioning such a program, empowering parents to take the lead in their child's treatment. At the same time, she cautions against the proliferating, but questionable, treatments hawked to afflicted families. She knows the panic to do something, anything, to help an autistic child, and she offers parents reassurance and support as well as sensible advice, combining knowledge from experience, theory and research.

For parents, autism in a child is heartbreaking. But it need not be overwhelming. Bryna Siegel offers a new understanding, and a practical, thoughtful approach that will give parents new hope.

About this title

About the Author

Bryna Siegel is Director of the Autism Clinic at Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, and is the author of The World of the Autistic Child, which sold over 50,000 copies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195138112
• ISBN 13: 9780195138115
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512