How do you know if your child is happy or sad, tired or hungry, when all he wants to talk about is wasps/m-/or the color of subway train doors? What can you do to reassure a nine-year-old who asks questions about death hundreds of times in a day? And how can you build a nurturing relationship when your little girl hates to be touched? Raising a child with autism or Asperger syndrome (AS) may challenge all of your notions about how children behave and what good parenting demands. You may even feel completely cut off from the child you love. That's why understanding how children with autism spectrum disorders actually think and feel/m-/and the striking ways in which their minds work differently from those of typical children/m-/is so important. Guiding your child toward more meaningful involvement in everyday life requires more than patience and persistence. You first need to enter and explore your child's unusual inner world, as Dr. Peter Szatmari invites you to do in this compelling book. With the grace of a gifted storyteller and the wisdom of a seasoned practitioner, Dr. Szatmari shares the stories of over a dozen children and families with whom he has worked. He reveals that people with autism and AS live in a world without metaphors; a visual landscape, built of images, not language. It's a place where friendly small talk may sound like a foreign tongue, where tree branches are more intriguing than people, where hairbrush bristles can feel like nails on the scalp or a hug like the clamp of a vise. Drawing on decades of influential research and clinical experience, Dr. Szatmari combines "big picture" information - the nuances of diagnosis, what is known about possible causes, and what the future holds for children with these disorders - with finely wrought observations that let you see the world through your child's eyes. Of crucial importance, Dr. Szatmari also illustrates ways parents can "break through" to help kids start to navigate the wider world. An intense interest in the patterns on wasp wings may be mystifying, but such visual perceptiveness also can be channeled into artwork or math. A child fixated on death may be less afraid of loss than of change in general - a common form of anxiety that parents can help soothe. Hating to be touched doesn't mean your child doesn't feel affection, but that he is physically hypersensitive - and you can find other ways to encourage closeness and offer comfort. Coping with autism or AS often feels like a journey through uncharted terrain, but neither children nor parents need to take the journey alone. This inspiring book shows how gaining a better sense of your child's experience can deepen the bonds that support learning and growth - and help you lead the way toward a happier future.
