Myomancy ADHD, Dyslexia and Autism

Teaching Children With Autism to Mind-Read : A Practical Guide for Teachers and Parents

Patricia Howlin

$46.25 via Amazon

The difficulties experienced by children with autism and related conditions in inferring the thoughts, beliefs, desires and intentions of others are well documented in numerous studies. It now seems that these deficits underlie many of the social and communication problems that are characteristic of autism. Teaching Children with Autism to Mind-Read explores the relationship of “theory of mind” deficits to other areas of children’s functioning and describes existing experimental work that has attempted to enhance the skills associated with understanding others’ minds.

Drawing on their own intervention programme, and providing detailed information about the teaching materials and strategies they use, the authors provide practical guidelines for helping children with autism spectrum conditions to improve their understanding of beliefs, emotions and pretence. The authors tackle specific problematic issues including:

• how to interpret facial expressions
• how to recognise feelings of anger, sadness, fear and happiness
• how feelings are affected by what happens and what is expected to happen
• how to see things from another person’s perspective
• how to understand another person’s knowledge and beliefs

This easy-to-follow graded teaching guide is of particular relevance to special needs teachers, educational and clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists, and carers of children with autism spectrum conditions.

People who have brought this book wrote:

This book contains a great program for teaching young children with autism how to interpret facial expressions and other social cues. It is aimed at young children.

If you have a teenager with autism, you may need more help, since the typical teen's social environment is much more complex than that of a younger child. This of course begs the question of why anyone would wait until their child was a teenager to start addressing his/her autism. One should instead start as early as possible, preferably well before 3 years of age, and definitely before 5 years of age. The longer you wait, the more difficult it gets, and the less promising the prognosis.

Is this book the only resource you will need to address your child's autism? Most definitely not! You should read "Let Me Hear Your Voice" by Catherine Maurice, and you should find a parent support group near you (check www.feat.org for a list by region). ABA treatment is a must, and some children also benefit from changes in diet, megavitamin therapy, and other treatments. ABA (especially), diet, and vitamins helped several children in my community go from a diagnosis of autism to testing in the normal range. But they all started very aggressive treatment early: before the age of 4.

So, read this book, but also gather information in the area of ABA, diet, and vitamins. Find other parents who are aggressively addressing their child's autism--you will need the mutual support. Above all, hit your child's autism with everything you can as early as you possibly can! There is not yet a guaranteed cure, but you can give your child a fighting chance of attaining a normal level of functioning.

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