Developmental-disabilities Books

Author has a good understanding of people with special needs. She makes it easy for children to understand and enjoy the book.
Susan Feintuch Stuermer

I bought this book after reading several positive reviews on it. However, I was very disappointed with it. The author attempted to make the book culturally diverse and inclusively based, but I did not find her method effective. I did not like the premise of the book that in order to be acceptable to others, there have to be commonalities. Differences as well as similarities should be embraced to better understand the individual. Stereotypes and finding similarities are not necessary in describing or understanding individuals.

... [Another reviewer] assumed that only commonalities link people and they couldn't be more wrong about the author's intent. I happen to know the author and she is all about acceptance with or without commonalities. This book was written for little children. To help children understand, sometimes a common theme is needed in order to get the point across. However, Mrs. Maguire is about accepting people NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE AND NO MATTER WHAT IT IS THAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THEM. This book is about kindness and seeing that just because we see people as different than we are, we are all unique and special individuals making up this planet. I'm sorry [another reviewer] did not see the reality of this book in the way it was intended.

This book has beautiful words and illustrations that are important for all children to hear. It sends the message that all kids are unique and special in their own way. I purchased this for my children so that they could see how disabilities affect people, but do not make them "different." This book teaches children in a fun way, with wonderful illustrations and truly thoughtful, rhyming text! I highly recommend this to all parents and children.

Not a good book. I requested Special People, Special Ways from the library after finding it at Amazon.com. My wife (who has a physical disability) and I looked over it, and quickly determined that we would not be reading it to our kids. Outdated descriptors and an emphasis on differences make this a poor choice when trying to help children understand disability and diversity. One obvious example is the use of the word "special"- often in reference to people with disabilities this term has become synonymous with "segregated" and is considered offensive to many. Also, are phrases like "struggle with pain", "it's hard to get through the day", and "hurts that we feel are not easy to mend". It's all just a little overdone - as if people with disabilities are some kind of aliens from another planet that have suddenly invaded our world! I'm sure the author meant well, but it just comes across wrong.

I would recommend Disability is Natural by Kathie Snow; this author has a website by the same name and offers free articles to print out - especially check out the four-page article "People First Language". A better alternative to Special People, Special Ways is A Rainbow of Friends by P.K. Hallinan or Don't Call me Special by Pat Thomas.

This book gave me some good perspective on working with my deaf students. It did gives many opinions that I disagree with in the course of my own studies.

This is the book you are looking for if you are the parent of a Deaf child. Tons of good information that is based on fact and not prejudice. The only negative thing I can say is the book was designed for the educated professional type of parent and includes advanced vocabulary and smallish print. You won't find illustrations, checklists or simplified information. Very excellent material that should help parents make informed decisions rearing their Deaf child. This is the kind of information that helped me to raise my own Deaf son who is now a happy and successful adult.

This is a most practical, sensitive book that is appealing for educators as well as families of deaf children. The author is renowned for his work in cognition and psychology, but demonstrates a wonderful understanding of deaf children through the eyes of an individual who seems to know their needs first hand. Any parent or teacher reading this book will get a sense of the complexities involved in raising a deaf child, but will also get a sense of hope and support for developing appropriate
guidance and nurturing. The author makes sure to speak to his audience as one among them and offers a wealth of advice regarding educational possibilities to audiological support to socio-emotional growth.

This is an unassuming book that provides light at the end of the tunnel. Honest and sincere.

This book claims to be a resource on the choises for educating your deaf child. It is not. The entire book focuses on using ASL as the means of communicating with your child. That would not be bad- if it didn't present itself as an unbiased book. After it says that ASL should be used, it then makes you feel worse by saying that if you are a hearing parent with a deaf child, you probably won't become that fluent in it anyway. There aren't references either- so I am not sure where the author gets his information. It may be true, but there should footnotes on many of the claims. If you do choose to read this book, don't make it the first book you read after you find out your child is deaf. That is what I did and all it did was depress me. In truth, I haven't finished it and probably will leave it on the shelf to pick up after I finish a few others.

In response to one of the reviews below I have to note that this program is in fact based on a very detailed and comprehensive theory. In fact it is more firmly grounded in current thinking in developomental psychology and recent research on how social development evolves, than most work in this field. Gutstein looks at both typically and atypically developing kids and doesn't base his theory only on working with autistic children. This, in my mind is the key flaw of many other approaches in this field (e.g. ABA) which base none of their approaches on how typical kids develop these skills.

In fact, Gutstein's theory is among the most coherent in the field and, as always, the question is whether the resultant interventions really follow from it and work. There is recent (2005) peer reviewed research suggesting some very significant positive outcomes for RDI, but it, like all autism research, has its flaws. Also, I have to agree that, of the two "intervention" books he has written, this one has less meat to it and is less immediately useful than the one for young children.

Gutstein's theory is laid out exceptionally well in another book - "Autism-Aspergers: Solving the Relationship Puzzle" which for some reason Amazon doesn't carry! I would say that book is an absolute must-read to understand this one, or the terms (e.g. master-apprentice) which have a very specific meaning to Gutstein will make no sense to you. For more info I would also suggest going to their wesbite at [...]

But personally disappointing. As a thirty-year-old who has been diagnosed with both Asperger's Syndrome and NLD, I picked this up at an ASA conference expecting to find it immediately useful. Instead, I took the test at the back (which is designed for caregivers/administrators, not adults on the spectrum... why can't they do simple rewrites so we don't have to?), only to find out that I tested out as to relationally immature for this book, and should refer to the previous one in the series. Which is recommended for use with children under 8, and whose activities are decidedly not age appropriate, nor can I find a way to re-write them enough to make them so. A warning, though: RDI significantly changes the personality of the person who goes through it. In a young child, this may not be noticeable or unwanted, but in an older child or adult, you may wish to ask their permission before putting them through this very thorough and intrusive therapy. As an adult, I am uncomfortable with the changes I saw produced in people who have gone through it, and would not consider it for myself. I like the personality I have, quirks, prickles, and all. Novotni's book, "What Does Everybody Else Know That I Don't" was more immediately useful, as it contained some precise suggestions on things to do or ask that did not involve extreme changes in personality or behavior.

There still exists a major gap in literature on relational development for ADULTS on the spectrum, since even those of us who are "high-functioning" tend to be low-functioning socially. While Gutstein's Solving the Relationship Puzzle, and Gutstein and Sheely's RDI book I'm currently reviewing have shown me what developmental milestones I have yet to cross, they don't provide any practical solutions for someone my age to begin the process... unless we're already at an intermediate level I, at least, have failed to achieve.

The caveat to this is that I expect this and it's companion book to be more useful for young children, and have recommended reading them to the parents of several children that I work with as a Respite/Habilitative Care Provider and to professionals at a school for developmentally disabled children where I work as a Classroom Aide. I have found ways to modify the activities in the first book to be suitable for children up into their early teens, and recommend use of this book as a follow-up for those who have mastered the activities in book 1.

I read this book thinking it "sounded" good but how could I use the info its seems quite complex and overwhelming. THen I attended one of Dr G's conferences and realized the book was never meant to stand alone!!! It is needed to progress and have a reference for the stages as you do them but RDI requires coaching and support. Ill tell you from me and many families who have done it, it has been the one thing that finally tackles the issues no other methodology can!!! We have been doing it for merely 2 months with an agency certifying throught DR G's practice and we have experienced spine tingling miracles. Most importantly it has made my daughter EASY to take ANYWHERE better than any ABA or VB has. In all honesty we have used many different methods, PRT, ABA, DIR-Floortime, Incidental Learning, You name it weve been there. But the commonality is that they still all allow the child to stay in their comfort zone- they are basically child centered approaches. This method MAKES your child come out of their shell, forces them through mutual enjoyment and love for the interaction to allow themselves to be lead.
The residual of all of the other methods was that they left my child having a hard time KEEPING friends due to her need to control situations (PRT and flootime) or be depended on adults to always allow for things to happen (ABA). THis changes all of it!! Not only is she beginning to appreciate and read social cues in just the mere first level of this method, but she is asking more age appropriate why questions and asking about things that happened to her when she was NONVERBAL!!! Her school is on board and wanting to do this and we know we cant stop. I highly recomend looking at this book and then going to a conference or purchasing their video, or even check out their website. (connectionscenter.com)YOU HAVE TO SEE IT IN ACTION!! And My prayers and blessings of frutiion to all!!!

My overall impression of this book is that is contrived and forced in places. The book is structured around a layered model of progress; essentially progressing the student from the lowest level of competence on through higher levels. One might presume that the authors were stuck for a teaching metaphor and grabbed the apprentice-expert metaphor as scaffolding on which to hang the lessons. The book is replete with various lesson plans and tactics for enagaging the AS person's interest. To be fair, a reasonable amount of what is here is worthwhile reading and reflecting on - once you filter out the esotericism of much of the language.

However, the book seems to stumble as it tries to fill its 400 odd pages with 'advanced' lesson plans. Some of the section titles made me wonder was this a case of Asperger Syndrome meets Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The AS subject moves through Novice, Apprentice, Challenger, Voyager and Partner levels as just one example. There are sublevels within each of these. Finding one's unique idenitity and place in the environment etc, are major objectives.

The tenor of a lot of this, for me at least, verged on almost cultish twaddle. I prefer a reasonable scientific tenor to any behavioural modification programme. However, others may find the book's approach illuminating and helpful.

The book emphasises coaching and that the real business of interventions is coaching. My problem with this is that it doesn't tie coaching into any particular theory - though if you take one of the authors' RDI courses presumably the theory will be revealed. There is a growing emphasis on putting intervention programmes on some sort of scientific footing, and it behooves the authors of such programmes to produce the goods on the worth of their offerings. I would recommend looking at Succeeding with Interventions for Asperger Syndrome Adolescents for a different approach.

The latter sections of the book, in my opinion, presume a lot of the AS subject. In particular the use of others to faciliate interaction, learn about emotions and generally mediate social interactions is just not a an easy thing to acomplish with an AS subject. The 'partner' that turns up today may not be there tomorrow. So how do you coach an AS teenager to fall back on there own resources?

The authors state that the book is suitable for use by parents, adolescents and adults, teachers and therapists (not many left out there). Personally I found this to be the most questionable claim of the whole book. How on Earth can it be a manual satisfying the requirements of such different audiences. It is verging on cyncical to suggest it has so much to offer to so many.

In conclusion, there are aspects of the book that are useful and other aspects that I found incongrous, if not downright peculiar. If I had a larger budget, I would definitely prefer Kathleen Quill's book, Do-Watch-Listen-Say even though it is not explicitly aimed at adolescents, and couple it with one of the Boystown Teaching Basic Social Skills to Youth as a more convincing pair. It is a personal choice, and different people may have different requirements.

This book is moderately useful especially if you are unsure of your parenting practices. The main content of the book seems to focus on the outlook of the parent toward the ADD child. There are many worksheets that can help parents to figure out where they stand on the issues at hand (especially the issue of medication). If you are confident in your parenting practices then...well, this is no more valuable than a counseling session.

I have to admit I was disappointed in this book. I ordered it because I knew the author, Harvey C. Parker was involved in CHADD, a support group for parents of children with ADD. This book does a good job covering the basics, but if you are already an educated parent about ADD and strategies, it offers nothing new or advanced. I'd say this book might be helpful for a parent who has a child aged 4-6, and who knows very little about ADD. The sticker charts in the book are definitely geared toward younger children. One example: there is a "Good Bedtime Behavior" chart with a picture of a bed with a teddy bear on it. There are ten circles on the headboard/footboard of the bed to put stickers on for behaving at bedtime. Definitely not for my ten year old boy!

This book provides simple strategies to help parents understand and manage a child with ADD/ADHD. The practical suggestions about behavior management are clear and simple. There are charts and scales to evaluate how your child is doing on medication and suggestions for teachers to help in the classroom. Best of all my likes the charts and stickers supplied with the book.

I bought this book in spite of the other review saying it was "bizarre". Of course, a basic underdstanding of anthroposophy would help, but having read about 20 books and many research articles on the lastest developments in the findings about autism and its treatments, I found this book did not contradict any of it. In fact, I was quite surprised at how up to date this book was, considering how anthropopshy is 100 years old. It is one star short of 5, because I would have liked to have had less theory and more practical help.

Despite the impression given by the title, this book does not describe a general "holistic" approach, but rather one based on the bizarre and mystical "anthroposophical" theories of Steiner. Although the authors' care for the children they work with is evident, their quasi-religious approach means that the book is only likely to appeal to those already prepared to believe that autism is due to problems in the child's karma and the failure of their soul to "incarnate" properly.

This is a tremendous work which any caregiver or family member of a person with autism should read. A credit to the obvious commitment and wisdom of the author.

Parents are the ones who know their child(ren) best. Any information that people can acquire to help children facing special needs is welcomed and appreciated. This book is such a teaching tool. Sadly, many lay persons' knowledge of autism has been confined to the cliche character of "Rain Man." Savantism applies to roughly less than 10% of the autistic population and sadly, "Rain Man" has become a negative stereotype for people with autism.

This is one of the most heartwarming, uplifting litany of successes I have had the good fortune and pleasure to read. Ms. Stehli, whose own daughter, Georgiana was labeled "autistic" is a shining beacon of success. Now married and a mother, Georgiana was nonverbal until the age of four despite having mastered all other milestones within normal age limits. She had hyper acute hearing and literally had to learn how to synthesize her senory modes. Fluent in six languages, Georgiana is an advocate of Auditory Integration Therapy (AIT) and is also an author on the subject.

AIT is a science that is targets auditory processing challenges and, from all accounts, aims to work with clients to gradually integrate what they hear into manageable units; e.g., individual words and/or sounds at one time. AIT also helps people concentrate without being distracted by other sensory modes. A Dr. Berard has made AIT a recognized science and this book, "Dancing in the Rain" brings his work to the lay reader. This book is truly a song to the soul, a cheer to the conscience and a voice of encouragement. This book is the voice of hope for many.

Autism and related neurological disorders such as Aspergers and PDD are fully explained in Ms. Stehli's works. Unfortunately for many, "autism" and "schizophrenia" have been used as "waste basket" or catch-all labels for persons who fit no defined criteria. One costly misperception that persisted until recent years was that autism is a mental illness, which it most emphatically is not. This book helps to undermine labels and focus on integrating people with a myriad of behaviorial as well as neurological challenges back into the mainstream.

Another highly damning and judgmental perjorative is the word "perseverate" in any tense. It is a truly dreadful word. While many professionals, parents included might find it a helpful shorthand, it is still an extremely negative, highly charged and destructive word that has hurt many. The terms "repetitive verbalizations/behaviors" and "special interests" are preferable as they speak to tolerance.

Based on Dr. Berard's writings, autism and its related behaviors are often a curious response to an overload of sensory input. Georgiana describes AIT as literally saving her life and the stories chronicled in this book make a very strong case for AIT indeed. In reading Dr. Berard's writings, one can see that his findings certainly do appear valid; other persons once thought of as autistic such as Raun Kaufman ("Son-Rise") seem to share the challenge of sorting out sensory input.

I feel this book is quite helpful and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

A number of interesting accounts, but in many respects the book was unsatisfying. For a start, all the accounts presented a positive account of AIT, which Annabel Stehli has been an eloquent promoter of. It's not this I object to, but this should at least have been acknowledged in the title - perhaps a more accurate title for the book would have been "Stories of Exceptional Progress by Parents of Children with Special Needs Using AIT".

Secondly, some of the progress described doesn't actually seem that exceptional. As a volunteer with autistic children, I've seen similar progress in children who weren't being subjected to any special treatments at all. Children with special needs, like all other children, grow and learn as they get older, and attributing this to whatever treatment was currently being used can be very misleading. Ultimately, a child's progress has a lot more to do with their overall education and the relative severity of their neurological disability. So maybe "Stories of Good but Not Actually That Exceptional Progress by Parents of Children with Special Needs Using AIT" ?

My third point would be that the book seems to present an entirely uncritical view of any treatment that claims to "cure" autism or other neurological conditions. In fact, there seem to be so many treatments which have a positively miraculous effect that it's a miracle there are any disabled children left in the country. Parents need balanced information in order to make informed decisions about whether to subject their children to treatments which are largely unproved (and some of which have been heavily criticised by scientists). Too often, Stehli's book just seems to be acting as a free advert for any purported treatment going. It would have been only fair to have included some accounts of children who didn't progress "exceptionally" after a particular treatment, or at least a more objective commentary. Parents shouldn't have to feel that they aren't doing enough for their child if they haven't rushed to try every "alternative" treatment going.

I am the mother who wrote the essay "James," and although it is full of my untutored, unprofessional opinions, I have been contacted by mothers from all over the world who seek my advice. The reviewer from Britain can take the same tired, old stance that we shouldn't try everything that comes around because some of it might not work, but if we didn't try everything, then our child may have missed out on something that is later scientifically proven to work. In the world of autism, furthermore, a parent is told that the situation is essentially hopeless. (At least, that is what my generation was told.) "Listen to us," the traditional experts command, then they say, "Oh by the way, your child's condi- tion is hopeless, and we have nothing to offer but manage- ment." Given that they have nothing to offer, why listen to them? James is now 12 and the coauthor of his own book--THE SELF-HELP GUIDE FOR SPECIAL KIDS AND THEIR PARENTS. It is my believe that none of his achievements in speaking and writing would have been possible without AIT.

I didn't like this book at all. It's written as if it's in the cat's perspective, like the cat is telling what is going on. It's about a family contending with autism and how the cat views this. Although it's not for me, it really is for cat lovers. It is better than the one about cats with asperger's, but not by much.

I have read at least a hundred books on Asperger syndrome, and this one stands out not only because it is very accurate in its description of autism spectrum disorders, but also because of its narrator's style. Author T.O. Daria sets the stage through his cat Dasha, who serves as the voice of the book. Dasha offers a viewpoint that is unique and gracious and charming. I know it sounds silly to think a narrating cat can do ASD justice, but trust me, the concept works and it works very well. This is the kind of book you can give to anyone, but especially to reluctant readers not sure they want to face the subject of ASD. I highly recommend it.
Liane Holliday Willey, author of Pretending to be Normal: Living with Asperger's Syndrome; Asperger Syndrome in the Family: Redefining Normal; and Asperger Syndrome and Adolescence: The Ups, the Downs, and the Things In-Between.

I am a man with Asperger's Syndrome, the highest-functioning form of autism, and I have, for many years, been involved in autism advocacy. As such, I cannot help but be perplexed by the huge amounts of misinformation abounding in the media, invariably from non-autistic sources. "Dasha's Journal" is the proverbial breath of fresh air. In describing the ins and outs of autism, the author gets it exactly right. These are objective facts.

Style and format are, of course, as the saying goes, in the eye of the beholder. This beholder found it very entertaining. (Disclaimer: I am an unreconstructed cat lover.) It takes a rare literary talent to put across something as seen through the eyes of someone else, especially an animal, and make it convincing. In this, the author has been successful. I should also like to point out that this book is not "pop science". The author gives many sources that "Dasha" uses to make her points, and these can referenced by professionals and others.

I use this textbook extensively in my pediatric practice. Although very comprehensive, it is accessible to the non-psychologist as well as the psychologist.

This text adequately covers the range of childhood and adolescent disorders and acts as a generalist text in this area. However, the references appeared to be largely out of date and the reader is left wondering if the information presented is current. The sections on treatment and assessment were brief and provided little useful information.

lifes lessons and hard courses and choices are in this book. this book shows us how to deal with them all.

What perplexes this Amazon.com reviewer is the very shoddy work by this feminist and the amazing effect it has had on the American education school system.

First, the methodology is not a true random samples of the female population. Thus the results are skewed. In business or science this would make the book untouchable by any serious reader. Indeed, it a perfect world it could cost the writer her chairs on various academic boards.

This Amazon.com reviewer was a teacher in the Columbus, Ohio intercity school system. Now, America's intercity schools are some of the poorer schools in Western civilization. However, because of the vast pro-girl and pro-women infrastructure these schools at least gave women of color a fighting chance of getting a good education and going to college. The fact of life is African-American males do considerably poorer in academics than African-American women. African-American women do a better job of sticking together as a cohesive group than a similar group of males. These girls and future women can band together to meet future challenges. Think of it. Because of feminist writers, like Carol Gilligan, the number of women attending college is now over sixty percent at many colleges. However, you don't see Ms. Gilligan write about the vastly successful pro-girl education system in America. Why? She makes money saying things for girls are bad.

Historically, I must give Author Carol Gilligan her due. Her writings are treated as gospel by the academic and media communities. It's puzzling to an informed educator of how her grossly incorrect conclusions have had such a massive impact upon the public mind.

This was a fascinating read, as it really opened my eyes to the needs of my students as they progress into adulthood. The discussion of the clients included in the book was intriguing, and the ramifications for those of us who are responsible for the education and care of disabled people were inumerable.

There were times that I blanched, thinking that a professional could really get into trouble with some of the situations that clients were placed in, but I would then remember that the clients were all adults, and that heterosexism prevents many disabled adults from experiencing appropriate peer interactions.

Perhaps the most important story to underscore caregivers need to support disabled adults in their pursuit of their sexuality was the story of the woman who met a partner on the internet. The subsequent manipulation and heartbreak by her cyber-partner shows how critical it is that we actually educate in and provide our students, clients or loved ones appropriate sexual outlets.

I would recommend this book to anyone who works with disabled adolescents or adults, or is the family member of a disabled adolescent or adult.

First off, I went into this book, an autistic lesbian, with an expectation. I expected that I would be included in the book's definition of 'developmental disabilities'. I don't seem to be. The book focuses entirely on 'intellectual disabilities', never on the peculiarities of autism as juxtaposed with sexuality and gender. But autistic people face prejudice and discrimination similar to that of people with different developmental disabilities. Within the first chapter, I adjusted my expectation as to who the book was about, and moved on to read the book without my original expectation.

This book tells the story of a support group for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) people with intellectual disabilities. Importantly, it tells it from a staff point of view. It starts with background information on the group's formation, moves on to descriptions of the members, and finishes with descriptions of the staff.

It is a good reference on this subject, and one of the only books I've seen that addresses this issue directly and continuously, instead of a chapter here and there. But there were some things in it that were decidedly unsettling.

It is interesting, and perhaps ironic, that the author describes the members of the support group as often being much more accepting of their LGBT qualities than their disability. Because the major flaw of this book is being sensitive to LGBT people but not to disabled people.

You can sense the staff-centered nature of the book when several members in a row are described as "manipulative" and "attention-seeking", labels that would likely not be given to them were they non-disabled. One man who acts in ways I'm very familiar with -- rocking, for instance -- at varying frequencies at varying times, is described as liking to engage in "obnoxious" behavior and exaggerating his disability at times to affect other people's behavior toward him. At the same time as the book's descriptions had me wanting to attend the support group, I was thinking, "Wait a minute, if I attended, what would the facilitators think of the fact that I rock and flap my hands a lot? Would that get written up as attention-seeking in the next book? Especially if the frequency changed under stress?"

To view survival tactics, ways of taking control when oppressed, and ordinary behavior as "manipulative" or "attention-seeking" is an old pejorative trick staff use to belittle disabled people, and I very much wish it was not occurring here. This was doubly disturbing when an incident was revealed, halfway through the book, in which an administrator used a series of individual phone calls to cause two disabled men in love with each other to avoid pursuing a relationship. The word "manipulation" was curiously absent in descriptions of this event, and the event was never confronted head-on for what it was.

Among the issues of discrimination discussed in the book, in fact, are the fact that other people try to prevent these relationships. Group homes, where too many of us unfortunately live, often have policies against sex or against closed bedroom doors. Education programs don't have sex education, and if they do it's usually heterosexual only. Adults are put under guardianships in which their guardians can control whom they see and when, and may not regard them as capable of consent to sex or relationships. People are stuck viewing people with developmental disabilities as childlike and don't even want to *think* about us having romantic relationships or sex, much less being anything but heterosexual. I have seen too many stories like this in real life to disbelieve anything the book has to say in this regard -- such as parents who chase away their offspring's lovers, believing, even if their offspring are the ones who initiated the contact, that someone else led their 'innocent helpless children' into a gay lifestyle.

The book describes this discrimination, and the way people face it. It describes people taking pride in who they are, as well as people turning desperately to heterosexuality for solace. It describes successful relationships and unsuccessful ones, as well as love triangles. With few exceptions, it doesn't sugarcoat the experience of LGBT disabled people.

This is a powerful myth-buster that I would recommend, among other reasons, because it strips away the thick layer of denial around the issue of sexuality and gender in people with developmental disabilities. But I dearly wish that it had been written in a way as sensitive to people with disabilities as it was to LGBT people.