Developmental-disabilities Books

I have been a fan of Stanley Greenspan since I switched from treating adults to treating children. I am an occupational therapist and Dr. Greenspan's books have been a guiding force in treating all of the children on my caseload, not only the ones with autism specturm disorders. If ABA is just not working for you or you are looking for a an approach that will build a closer relationship with your child, read this book. I would also recommend the book The Special Needs Child, also by Greenspan.

The books teaches you how to get your "tuned out" child's attention. How to get your child to begin to communicate with you. How to build communication from fleeting moments to real back and forth communication.

I use the recommendations from this book everyday in my practice and I frequently recommend it to my client's parents.

Excellent book! Highly recommended! Our son is progressing with more positive results and LESS tears! We found this in our library and HAD to purchase it.

Really well-written and so on target. I have shared it with several families and their response to it has been so positive...they feel they now have a realistic way to try to play with and communicate with their child. We are also using this approach with several students at our school and witnessing appropriate responses from them.

This is a good book. Bought it for my sister and my sister and my brother-in-law
are finding it very informative and useful.

On the same topic, ADHD as Autism requires lot of pointers for the parents, when
their kids/family members or friends are diagonised. May be there are lot of pointers
and information already, but I find it hard to get some directions on this.

Also, the medical community over here in US could share their invaluable knowledge and
expertise to countries like India, where this is new and parents like my sister are
suffering, lacking all this information, guidance and pointers - I really mean that.

Thanks for all involved in writing this book.

Engaging Autism has been one of my mainstays for working with families with children in the autism spectrum. I have been able to teach them simple strategies from the Floortime method that allows them to quickly see glimmers of engagement with their children. Dr. Greenspan's explanations of why these children have problems and how to help them find us worth joining is very thoughtful.

Parents that I have recommended this book to have come back with a better appreciation of the struggles and strengths of their children. They are more ready to get down to their child's developmental social-emotional level to allow them to grow, thus enabling them to be available to the other therapies that are needed.

Not everyone has a Floortime/DIR trained therapist available to work with them, but with this book they at least have some strategies to include as they play with, work with, and learn to enjoy the child they have.

Excellent social stories to use with my son who has Aspergers. My husband & I have found it to be a wonderful resource when working with our son. His SPED teacher recommended it and we're so glad we own it.

Great book but I am upset with Amazon.com. Please remember that when you are just simply "Browsing" a product and try to merely put in your cart or saved box they will charge you. Another problem with this particular book is that it was supposed to come as a set with the comic strip conversation book (also a very terrific book) - so I clicked on that after I saw the duo combo for cheaper = Amazon sent me two of the same books (social stories) = no comic strip conversations, when I returned the one (as I do not need two) they charged me a shipping cost that was free prior. I would recommend being very careful, I have always, always ordered my books from Amazon.com but now I am extremely careful. Just one story...

I was looking for more information regarding how social stories help children. How to create social stories with children. I was disappointed by this book. It does not give any information on how to work with social stories to help children.

Very useful book to help with social stories to help students with Autism deal with different circumstances they encounter.

My daughter is 5, she is not interested. She does not like "sometimes", or "some kids". She wants stories from life about kids and adults. She does not like abstract reasoning in long sentences.
But stories in a book are easy to rewrite for her. And they are good guide of what should be done. Such as "Tom saw this and did that. Teacher was happy. Bob saw that and did this. Teacher was sad."

The book that I ordered came on-time and in great shape. I couldn't have asked for an easier transaction.

If you do have ADD, this book won't keep your attention for five minutes. I do agree with the author's premise that ADD is just a way of being that is "different", and even advantageous in certain situations, instead of "wrong", "defective", or "sick". However this book is not the self-help manual I was expecting. Instead it is full of tedious and repetitive analysis of the supposed evolutionary roots of ADD and technical discussions of the specific genes that supposedly contribute to a tendency towards ADD. This may be of interest to some but is not the best choice for an ADDer looking for practical strategies to improve their life. I resolutely plowed through the first couple of chapters, but after seeing that it was going nowhere just skimmed the rest of the book. A couple of books that I have found more helpful are ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life and Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder.

I had high hopes for this book. It sounded like such a great idea. It really is, but would have been much better summarized in a magazine article. You get the gist from the back cover. Most of the book is either the author touting how he is responsible for coining the phrase and that anyone else is only borrowing it from him; or is a lesson on the ice age and climatology - neither of which I wanted to shell out $20 for, not to mention my precious time.

There is a lot to learn about ADHD. This is a good place to start.
Children grow so fast, they have to live with our choices, let us all work hard to help make them happy adults.

Loved it. Easy to read and fascinating new info. you won't find in other books on this topic

a few excellent pages on parent dealing with autism.. then becomes a generic life story

This book is a well written book that is easy to read but renders great information on Aspergers. it reads like a novel but is a true story of Temple Gradin and her Mother. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in this area but it is a gift to parents who are dealing with raising a child with Autism in general and Aspergers specifically. As a teacher Temple helped me to understand this atypical world and her mother touches me with her story and the impact on her life.

I have read several books on families that have a least 1 child that is autistic and this is no different. The only thing, i found interesting is that this mother seemed to be more invovled with her child and encourged her then just pushing away.

I like this book. It is extremely well written and expressed. I love reading life stories and hers is brilliant. You can pictures her words in your mind. Thoroughly recommended.

This author was constrained in her telling of the 'family story' by an embargo from her adult children who requested that their stories be largely omitted. However, as the main character was her daughter 'Temple'she still managed to impart interesting facts and portrayed the difficulties and some triumphs as she struggled with her unusual daughter and the strains the situations placed on her (Eustacia's) marriage. As a project worker involved in supporting families of school aged children with autism, I found it interesting and valuable as well as a good story in it's own right.

RDI enables the child to move from the self-imposed safety of a static system of his/her own making to engagement in the fluid world at large. The steps are based on the developmental stages of a normal childs venturing into world while he/she looks to the caregiver for support and referencing. The child on the autism spectrum ventures out until the world becomes confusing and chaotic and because he/she does not look back at the caregiver for a broadening understanding becomes overwhelmed and retreats into stimms or idiosyncratic habits to create a static, safe or predicatable environment. The child looks odd as he/she is not engaged in the fluidity life. The words static and fluid or big with RDI as the idea is the child is constantly controlling his/her environment to block out anything which might change the order they seek. The step by step process of RDI is a very optimistic idea in action as it can be used with a 2 year old or an older more entrenched Aspergers child with defined obsessions for example - basically it doesn't matter the treatment begins with breaking into the child's stimm or obsessions in a playful fashion to make them used to the interruptions of their solo activities. This is pretreatment then the program moves through levels based on developmental stages. Level 1 for example is about co-ordination and self referencing with the care giver and the child is never allowed to move forward without the caregiver right there step by step - this is a back and forth relationship play level, based on facial gazing for information - infact avoiding language at this stage is very important as the child should learn to read anothers face at this point the caregiver says "I need to see your words" - once the child has mastered back and forth - gaze reading and shared joint attention it progresses to shared novel interactions that involve spontanity, a higher level of emotional attunement and fluidity. The goal is for the child to become an initiator and to become adept at keeping co-ordination when actions and reactions grow more complicated. I believe this program is a neccessary component to any intensive program with developmentally disabled children as ABA only goes so far - ABA is great at working with these kids excellent memories to teach rote skills - but it does not provide for the rich experience of life which can not be predicted and which gives life meaning. Lynn Koegal at UCSB discovered looking back over her 20 years of videos that the kids who really mainstreamed indistinguishable from typical peers and became independent adults had self-initiation skills and this is the ultimate outcome of RDI. That they learn through referencing the other, where the self is in the relationship, and the payoff is equally enjoying what they can add or initiate in relationships.

I have a child with High Functioning Autism. We did ABA and yielded good results. Later I heard about RDI. I have had trouble jumping on the RDI train so I bought this book to heighten my understanding. The RDI concepts make sence and the book is a good read but the book is filled with alot of hype and propoganda. It lacks actual direction on how to best begin implementation of an RDI program without pouring thousands of dollars into Dr. Gutsteins bank account! This book is like a teaser to get you to buy into the whole RDI Connections "Gutstein Gravy Train". First there is this book, then thousands of dollars to attend his seminars to get more information, then more $$ to hire an RDI consultant ($100-$150/per hour or more), then more $$ on his additional books and training! Remember people NONE of this will be covered as "therapy" under any insurance! I just wanted to add this comment to help stuggling parents navigate this world full of "PROMISES" for ASD kids! Be cautions how much you spend on "cures". Read the book then put the book down and PLAY, Laugh, get down to your child's level and ENGAGE (no matter WHAT it TAKES)! Even if he is non-verbal, standing in a corner, looking at his fingers -- DONT GIVE UP! Stay ENGAGED - He/She will know (even if YOU don't think they know or feel you there -- They Do!!) There is your RDI --Relationship Development Intervention --- FREE --- Without making Dr. Gutstein Rich off our desperation! Gain an understanding of the "core deficits from Autsim from this book" -- Then put the book down -slow down - and TRUST your parental instincts - make steps to CONNECT with your child, and advocate for all your child's needs (from schools/doctors/community agencies, etc...) before you depleat your bank account chasing Dr. Gutstein's continuting plan.

I'm actually revising this review having reread the book and learned more about RDI, as I feel I have a better idea of what the approach is really all about now. My new in-a-nutshell assessment: there are some things I really love about RDI, and some things that I don't care for. To be fair, I would say the same about most treatment approaches.

To start with the positive: I think the thing that makes RDI special are what they now call the "Child Goals". There was a time when we thought teaching children with autism to be 'social' meant drilling them on how to say "Hi, my name is ____ what's your name how are you do you want to play", and other such catch phrases that would be fairly useless on a real life, chaotic playground full of it's own hidden codes and rules. The same for abstract thought, imagination, perspective taking. Some things don't translate well to the old "10 trials" format. So a big bravo to RDI for researching this topic and developing goals based around how these skills emerge in typical development.

Now for what I see as the core problems in RDI. First, it is all set up around the philosophy that if children feel competent, they will participate (as opposed to ABA, which says if children feel MOTIVATED they will participate.) So if you are trying to do a social activity with an autistic child, and they keep running away trying to go play with light switches or Thomas Tank Engine, RDI says it's because they don't feel competent. Make the situation easier, help them more, slow down, and they will happily engage with you.

Nothing wrong with this philosophy, but I'm here to say, I haven't found it to be true. There is actually emerging research to suggest that children with autism may be wired to be 'systemizers' and to pay attention to more mechanical/mathematical type information while lacking typical levels of motivation to attend to social information. If this is the case for a child, you can simplify all you want and the issue isn't that they don't understand, it's that they don't care and you're not creating a reason for them to care. You can be the best teacher in the world but it won't do much for a student who is tuning you out.

Second, RDI says that most of the methods used in ABA teaching are Bad with a capital B, and encourage families to really avoid these methods. Again, the problem? A lot of those methods are extremely effective with autistic children, and taking them off the table really limits your teaching tools. This includes methods such as giving the child a direct instruction or asking them a direct question, prompting them to answer or respond, or teaching new material in a very repetitive, predictable way.

I think the interesting argument that you get down to here is: when teaching an autistic child, how much should you accommodate a child's autism vs. how much you should try to change it? In my mind, using ABA type methods lean more toward accommodation - teaching in a way that is easier for an autistic child and more in line with their style of learning. RDI methods stress change - you teach more in the way you would expect a neurotypical child to learn and hope they will in turn adapt to this.

What I have seen to happen, in my admittedly very limited observation, is that children who are closer to that neurotypical way of thinking do well with RDI, whereas children who are more classically autistic don't seem to get much out of RDI unless it's adapted for them. For the children who have some of those base skills already, RDI can be the push they need into becoming a dynamic thinker. For a child who doesn't attend well to social information, needs to have their interest/motivations incorporated to a large degree, and doesn't learn well outside of highly structured teaching situations, I almost wonder if it's akin to teaching a deaf child with nothing but verbal direction.

So my advice? I like the ideas, I do. I would recommend this therapy for high-functioning children with fairly good language and some pre-existing social motivation. For more involved children, I would recommend it as an add-on to other types of therapy such as Floortime or Verbal Behavior, that are more focused on adapting to the child's way of thinking instead of waiting for them to adapt to yours.

If I'm reviewing this book, and just this book, then I give fairly high marks. The book gives some nice insight into the development of social interaction and how typical therapies aren't well equipped to address this. It's a bit vague as to how you would in fact remediate these deficits, but still a worthwhile read.

I can't really review the book without reviewing the RDI program, however, and here I have some reservations. If you do buy this book with the intent of starting an RDI program, you may well be told the following:

- ABA programs make children "more autistic", even though they appear to be getting better this is only a short term illusion, underneath it all they are being taught to think in a more black-and-white 'autistic' way. You may be told that you must stop your ABA program in order to work with a consultant. (Floortime is also considered bad news.)

- Language fundamentals (i.e., basic vocabulary, understanding language, speaking in sentences) are not a core defecit of autism despite the fact that they are listed as part of the diagnostic criteria, and so they are not targeted. The child will 'get' this language by doing RDI, however, even though it's not specifically addressed.

- Quality not quantity of treatment is important (I disagree - research seems to show that time IS important in therapy, and leading parents to believe that reducing time can be better for the child seems worrisome.)

- Children don't need reinforcement to participate, or for you to use their natural interests. So long as they feel competent, they will participate in the activities you've set up. If this is not the case, it's typically blamed on a 'co-occurring disorder', (for example, bipolar disorder, ADD, or oppositional defiant disorder,) rather than giving consideration to the fact that the child isn't motivated or interested in social stimuli.

I have concerns that parents are actually being told that they should go out and fire their ABA therapists when so much research exists to support these programs and there is virtually none behind RDI. Not to mention that RDI now includes mandatory parent training goals in the beginning, and these can take months to complete before you ever see a goal for your actual child. That's precious early intervention time lost, at a time when every second matters.

My thought is that this program would be good for a high-functioning or Aspergers child who is beyond the more basic skills taught in ABA and early intervention programs. For that population I think it makes sense. For a child who needs to develop basic language and skills, however, be wary of some of the holes in this program.

I was given this book by another parent whose son has autism, and my son has a preliminary diagnosis of PDD-NOS. While I do agree that an important part of the missing piece for specturm children has to do with their inability to read and respond to the emotional and social cues of their peers, I have my doubts as to whether or not that certain "piece" is the most critical and primary component of autism that needs to be adressed first and primarily in order to begin the process of recovery. Frankly, I am dubious of any therapy that requires parents to spend $3,000 on a four day seminar before they can purchase more therapy, which will likely have to be paid for out of pocket. I find that the RDI's official websites use of guilt and fear in goading parents out of their precious resources is not only irresponsible, but generally reprehensable as well. When I hear something like recovery, or hope for you child's fullest potential, initially comes with a three-thousand dollar cash outlay plus the cost of travel and hotel accomodations, so that someone can tell me over the course of four days, that my son has a deficit when it comes to socialization, I immediately become suspicious. Buyer's beware I say: when therapists have our children's best interest at heart, they never use guilt or fear to get parents into their offices so that treatment and help can begin to lighten the already heavy load of caring for a child with autisim spectrum disorders.

While I think what the author is trying to do here is a good thing. He's trying to let parents of kids with Autism and related disorders know there are alternative treatments out there and they don't have to settle for the blanket hopeless statement doctors tell them about autism being non curable. But I found the book focused on promoting the use of his great plains labratory which I believe is now shut down which makes me question the credibility of the books contents. And if what he says is true about his labratory being the only labratory to do much tests than it makes much of this book useless. Also, if you can't afford the treatments he speaks of it will leave you feeling really helpless.

Read this twice... It has so much stuff in it and you do not want to miss any of it. Great stuff. I am over whelmed by it. It is a must...Not one thing was forgoten in this book. I know at least a dozen people who would recommend this book.. The author knows his stuff.

Between this book and Dr. Bakers book (DAN Protocol book)the information provided is unreal. These are some amazing Doctors on a mission which I will embark on now. I have a daughter just diagnosed 3 months back with Autism and will follow the protocol they outlined. My biggest hope is my daughter will fall in the 30% this works for. I'm a Culinary Graduate from Johnson & Wales and am begining my Journey into this now. I can be reached at sqlscripters@hotmail.com

Dr. Shaw has made many contributions that have helped many children, mine included. A few years ago I referenced this book often, looking for ways to help my son. At the time, I would have recommended this book as a must have for every parent.

However, at this point it is becoming fairly dated. If you were to attend a DAN! conference today, you would see that their focus, and our understanding of the science has changed.

If you are considering purchasing this book, you are, I assume, as I was a few years ago -- in a real big hurry to find the best information you can to help someone you love. So to that end, I would recommend instead of this book:

"Children with Starving Brains" by Jaquelyn McCandless
"Autism: Effective Biomedical Treatments" by Syndey Baker and Jon Pangborn
"Special Diets for Special Kids" by Lisa Lewis
"Breaking the Vicious Cycle" by Elaine Gottschall.

I have spent thousands of dollars in these treatments for my son over last 3 years with no difference at all. Feel free to contact me personally.

Dr. and people like these are out there to victimize parents of autistic kids.

read "Parenting a Child with Sensory Processing Disorder" over the holidays. Very well done. The book was easy to read and felt personable.

I like the fact that you really look at the family and the domino effect created by everyone living in the household, PSD or not. I also like the fact that you give a foundation of information for families to use, an introduction to the whole picture. Then I was even more impressed by your follow through on contact information to go deeper.

Your introduction to recognizing differences of each partner and using them to the families advantage instead of letting it separate and/or divide was also well done. Once again, you followed up with contact information to go deeper.

Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with others. I will be recommending this book to families and providers.

This book is wonderful for a family with a child with SPD. It doesn't cover therapy for the child but instead focuses on what the family needs to survive and thrive. It talks about relationships in the family and how to strengthen them while coping with a child with SPD. It is a must have for a family with SPD.

This book has been a great help to me in understanding my son's issues, as well as helping me to explain it to others. I highly reccomend this book, especially to parnets with children just diagnosed.

I expected this book to focus more on parenting. Instead, it primarily talks about sensory processing disorder. There are a lot of books that do that. It does have good info about SPD, but not nearly enough about parenting for me. Sensational Kids (by Miller) actually has more helpful tips.

Due to their sometimes unusual reactions and needs, parents of children with sensory processing disorder may need additional levels of patience, compassion and understanding. With this book, parents are given valuable tools to strengthen their relationships and to help their special children reach their potential. Through their own personal stories and the examples of other parent-advocates, the authors illustrate the tensions of living with children who have different aspects of Sensory Processing Disorders. They authors impart a concrete message of hope and encouragement with their advice on problem solving, coping strategies and relationship building. A useful book for professionals serving families, as well as parents who wish insight into their family dynamics.

I read, "the world of the Autistic Child" a few years ago and it was just the best book on Autism out there. So informative, and such an interesting read. So I was extremely excited when this book was released. I immediately purchased it. You will not be dissapointed!! If you read "the world..." and enjoyed it then you will definately appreciate this book as well. I did however find the previous book more interesting, maybe because I was still "new" to the Autism world. Now after years of reads, and research, well there just isnt much "new" info out there that I haven't already read. Having said that..I still very highly recommend this book to add to anyones collection of books on Autism.

This book is more practical and has a professional outlook. Most of the books on autism are written by parents and offer an insight into theie plight. Yes, this book can be a bit depressing at times, but it's better to be realistic and find a solution.

This is an exceptional resource for anyone who is interested in helping children with autism. There is a wealth of information in this 498 page book - based on research and professional experience.

Bryna Siegel begins with a discussion of the definition of autism and its impacts on children, including development and strengths and weaknesses. By understanding how autism works and effects children, their supporters can find ways to teach them that are effective. The second major section focuses on social and communication problems that face autistic children. It explains how and why it affects their learning and functioning in society. The last third of the book presents various treatment options - descriptions and strengths and weaknesses.

I highly recommend this book. It is a remarkable resource for anyone who really wants to delve into the world of autism.

I have not finished reading this book; yet like other reviewers I have some reservations. Bryna Siegel does a fine job of explaining Autistic Spectrum Disorders, and how it affects the development of a child. However, I find some of her conclusions and statements to be potentially misleading, especially when since ASDs are still being researched, and not much is 100% definite. Interesting theories, but not necessarily facts. Having said that, use your judgement and don't miss out on the good information and experience that Bryna does offers.

I would NOT recommend this book...it is dangerously misleading in places.

Quote from this book: "Similarly, retrospective statistics for US sample have led
the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institutes of
Health, the Institute of Medicine, and the World Health Organization
all to conclude that vaccines do not cause autism. The "probable
cause" finger was pointed at thimerisol [SIC! correct spelling is thimerasol], a mercury-
containing preservative in vaccines. However, the kind of mercury in
vaccines is different from the "bad" mercury in contaminated foods.
Mercury is a chemical element, like hydrogen or nitrogen--which might
be bad for you, too--and like them, it needs to be studied in the
form of the specific compound being indited."

I don't know whether she is disingenuous or just simply ignorant.
Comparing a toxic heavy metal to hydrogen or nitrogen?? "BAD
mercury"??? There is no GOOD mercury. Ethyl and methyl mercury are both dangerous neurotoxins. And I will not go into all the flaws in the epidemiological studies.

Here's another one:

"Be aware that some practitioners have offered the idea that a child
who eats a lot of one food is "craving" it for either some good or
some bad reason. There is no evidence to support theories of these
sorts. There is also no evidence to support the idea that children
with autism have more food allergies or are more likely to react to
foods with gluten (like wheat products) or casein(like dairy
products). What "research" there is on these things is available
only on the Internet and in books by parents who feel it "cured"
their child or doctors who have "invented" a new diet. There are no
reports in peer-reviewed scientific journals."

Oh, yes, there are. There are peer-reviewed studies showing that there are many more autistic children with IgA deficiency than the general public, there are studies of opioid peptides from milk and wheat, and there is the newly recognized syndrome of gluten ataxia reported in the medical literature. Gluten ataxia results from antibodies that attack not only the gut but the Purkinje cells in the cerebellum, which affect balance and are also affected in autism. I'd skip this book, and certainly not recommend it to any parent of a newly diagnosed child. It may be useful for some educational considerations comparing ABA and TEACCH and various forms of inclusion, but with the misleading information on medical issues I think this book is dangerous.

My PhD is from Cornell, and I worked in the Department of Nutrition there as a Research Associate for 7 years. Of course, it is hard to find peer-reviewed articles on thimerasol if you cannot spell the word. If you do purchase this book, please ignore any statements regarding medical issues.

Nerds is a very weak book. It was a great idea, but was ultimately contaminated by the author's politics. Had he been serious about his thesis he would have dropped the political correctness and been more substantive. Anderegg sees sexism reflexively and habitually in all kinds of places where it is not present. He defines a nerd accurately (see his five foundations of nerdiness), and is correct that a correlation between physical ability and mental ability exists. He also illustrates that the phrase "that's so gay"--used by kids in a ubiquitous and pervasive fashion--relays to all kinds of behaviors and not merely to homosexuals.

Unfortunately, Anderegg buys into political correctness completely. He fails to identify our culture's ridiculous obsession with identity politics. He rarely thinks "out of the box" and makes absurd claims such as men being turned off by smart looking women. This is fallacious and totally inaccurate. He also suggests that being awkward is a turn off for both men and women. Why is that the case? He doesn't say and doesn't cite any evidence. Men should be confident, but a woman's confidence is totally superfluous in terms of attractiveness. He weaves in politics whenever possible and cites George Lakoff to deconstruct the framing of the words "tax relief" by proffering up an ultra leftist rephrasing. "Paying one's dues" is non-sense and not a synonym for taxes. There's no line between paying one's dues and the government stealing everything you have. What's the level for dues not being onerous? 30 percent? 50 percent? 80 percent? The author has no idea but hopes we won't make such inquiries.

In Chapter 9, he formally invalidates his legitimacy by misconstruing Al Gore's loss in the 2000 election as being due to his allegedly being an archetypal nerd. This is ludicrous. He conveniently leaves out--while demeaning George W. Bush--that Gore flunked out of Divinity School. Furthermore, voters rejected Gore because he was/is a bubbleheaded leftist. He stood up at his campaign convention and waged class war which should have turned everyone off. It wasn't a jock versus nerd struggle. Bush was actually more accomplished as a student than was Gore but this eventuality doesn't interest Anderegg. This author is yet another academic who chooses politics over truth and looks down on his audience by attempting to manipulate them. In the final analysis, Nerds was quite forgettable.

David Anderegg has written a wonderful commentary on modern day America and the pitfalls of stereotyping. Mainly based around the word "nerd", he explores every aspect of the word, from it's etymology through it's psychological perks. I can't imagine a more enjoyable study on the developemental psychological look at nerds.

Not a bad book. Not really scientific enough for my case. I would have liked more case studies and less philosophizing. But, very informative as a whole. I've learned that I have avoid the nerd stereotype with my self confidence (uncalled for?) and the easy with which I deflect criticism. Which I would agree was very handy in the vicious middle school years. My keen fashion sense also help (you can't call me a geek for that reference, since that means you know it too).

Scientific writing, when done well, is a creative art as well as a compilation of meticulous research. Here, Dr Anderegg does well to put forth 'The World of The Outcast' for the society which created it. Modern day America classifies, insults, and even neglects the people unlucky enough to earn the title 'nerd', and with a beautiful mix of child psychology and adult sociology, Anderegg keeps the reader engaged. This is science, but it is not convoluted geneology, thick with quotations in foreign languages and professional terminology. It is accesible to all (including the non-nerds among us), and is sure to cultivate interest in social psychology as well as childhood development. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever seen, been, or thought about a nerdy child, as well as to anyone interested in a fascinating, quirky look at American history, culture, and psychology.

I purchased this book after hearing an interview with Dr. Anderegg on the "Bob Edwards Show". I work with middle school and high school students and I was looking forward to reading this book. It was a big disappointment for several reasons.

Dr. Anderegg spends a great deal of time deconstructing the nerd/geek and the myths that surround them. Some of this gets very tedious and, I believe, will lose the lay reader (I have a fair amount of background in this area and he almost lost me at mid-book).

Dr. Anderegg gets VERY preachy at times. This particularly true in his concluding chapter. It's funny because the people most likely to buy and read the book, are the ones who are least likely to need the preaching.

I would have liked more conversations with kids about nerds, geeks and social isolation. That would have been interesting. The chapter titles are clever, I only wish the content had been on the same level.

I didn't really expect that the dictionaries for people with Asperger Syndrome(AS) would be published. But I don't believe the dictionary will guarantee 100% to catch the social lives of people with AS. Of course, I do see the author's intention; to help Aspies(people with Asperger Syndrome) cope more smoothly with their society. And I know it can be quite useful to remember the idiomatic and pragmatic expressions shown in this dictionary when it comes to making conversations more lively. However, that's not everything for Aspies, because overuse of those idioms makes communication more unnatural, awkward, and even confusing. Therefore, to understand the idioms is one thing; to overuse them quite another. Of course, I agree with moderate use of them, though.
After all, I could have given 5 stars to this book with more specific examples. For Aspies and Non-native speakers of English, it might be better to deal with What Did You Say? What Do You Mean?: An Illustrated Guide to Understanding Metaphors written by Jude Welton.

Maybe a little over complex, but great collection of metaphorical and idiomatic expressions, amazing how complex language is becoming!

This is an excellent book and not just for people with Asperger's. I think that many of our young people today do not have a grasp of idioms and everday expressions. This book is an excellent resource for high school teachers and students.

Not just for Asperger sufferers is this dictionary of everyday expressions, a reference tool which has been revised and expanded to include some 5000 expressions to reveal the meaning of everyday idiomatic expressions. People with Asperger Syndrome have difficulties with social communication: here entries are clearly explained, cover British and American English alike, and clarifies phrases commonly used - and confused - in social situations. Any library will find it an excellent language reference.

You wouldn't get this book to learn phrases to use... you would use it to understand other people.

There is just one small problem... most people misuse expressions a lot because they have incorrectly assumed what they mean or heard someone else use them wrong, so you could never be sure what is written here is what was actually meant, and it does nothing to help with people's lack of clarity and precision and honesty when speaking in general, which as a person with AS myself I have found a bigger problem than understanding expressions.

If you or someone you know has a serious problem understanding expressions then this book could be helpful, but I would worry that it is perhaps too comprehensive. Many of the phrases contained within seem a bit obscure or archaic. If you did start using the phrases in here the chances are that no one would be able to understand you!

Nice idea though.