Embracing Autism in Preschool, Successful Strategies for General Education Teachers, Second Edition, includes the latest autism diagnostic guidelines with implications for student placement and is invaluable for preschool teachers, special educators, speech/language clinicians and parents. This updated bestseller supports preschool teachers wishing to meet the needs of each child in their care while including children with autism. Research-based strategies include teacher-tested ideas that support every young child's learning. These strategies and sample activities in the text and appendices are easy to read and provide a much needed resource for early childhood educators. Embracing Autism underscores social interaction as the foundation for the development and use of language in natural settings. There is a chapter on the use of play for developmental purposes. These interactions are crucial for further development of socialization, which is such a challenge for children on the autism spectrum. Embracing Autism has the potential to change for the better the way community preschools everywhere approach young children on the autism spectrum. This book's practicality and resources make it possible to truly feel, in Karen's words, that "it is a privilege to have a child with autism in your class."
Karen Griffin Roberts holds a Bachelor of Individualized Study (BIS) in Early Childhood Development: A Study in Autism, from George Mason University. In 2007 she completed a summer intern program at the Johns Hopkins Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism and Related Disorders, Baltimore, Maryland, under the direction of Dr. Katherine Holman. In 2010, she received her Masters Degree in Education with an Endorsement in Early Childhood Special Education from George Mason University. Ms. Roberts has raised an adult son with autism and has taught general preschool education for nineteen years. In addition to teaching she has at times assumed Preschool Administrator, Education Coordinator and Teacher Supervision responsibilities. In 1998 she was honored with the Children's World, Northern Virginia District Area, Master Educator Award. In 1999, she received the Children's World Honor Teacher Award and was one of eighteen honorees chosen nationwide to attend the National Association for the Education of Young Children's 1999 annual conference. In 2010, Ms. Roberts joined Virginia's Prince William County's Special Education team. She taught preschool students for seven years and for two years she taught kindergarten to grade two students with autism. She retired from teaching in 2019. Her undergraduate project to develop a manual for preschool teachers to use for including children with autism in the classroom won George Mason University's BIS award for "Most Creative Project," May 16, 2009. Worldwide response to this project from preschool administrators, special education and general education preschool teachers and families has resulted in the publication of the first edition of this book, Embracing Autism in Preschool: Successful Strategies for General Education Teachers. Ms. Roberts is also the author of the Let's Talk series of books for preschool parents and teachers. The idea for the series was drawn from the many questions special education families ask about their child's challenges in early development. The first of the series, Let's Talk About Early Language Development is co-authored with Ana G. Hoover (2013). The second in the series, Let's Talk About Autism in Early Childhood is authored by Ms. Roberts (2014). The final and third in the series, Let's Talk About Early Childhood Social-Emotional Development is co-authored by Ms. Hoover and Ms. Roberts (2020).
