Disability-and-Health Books

This book is made up of several different authors and gives a multi-faceted view of dealing with Aspergers and High Functioning Autism. The most helpful section of this book for me was when a parent made a book for his Asperger child's class. It gave me the inspiration to make a book with my own AS child to give out at his IEP mtg. (which was a huge hit.)I also found the discussion of the special relationship difficulties AS kids have and how important it is to fascilitate friendships between them. It reminds me constantly that although getting AS kids together is really tough sometimes it is really an important and valuable experience for all involved over the long run. I also LOVED the chapter called Humor Imagination and Empathy in Autism. The author of that chapter made simple stick figure cartoons for her AS and High Functioning Autism sons as a regular tool to help them understand their daily lives. I have adopted this technique (and believe me I am not artist) and found it VERY effective with my AS son and my "normal" son as well. Overall, I liked this book and would recommend using it as a tool for your child's future. Knowledge is power!

Kristi, parent and author of
Finding Our Way: Practical Solutions for Creating a Supportive Home and Community for the Asperger Syndrome Family

All aboard for the mystery tour! Step right this way! Take a Magical Mystery Tour into the sensory world of autism/Asperger's Syndrome! And who better than somebody on the spectrum to act as a tour guide for the neurotypical population to understand autism!

Tony Attwood is certainly one of the leading experts on Asperger's Syndrome. This book is an interesting and easily absorbed collection of how several individual families interact with children on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) specrum. Since these families had to sign consents to be included in the book, I somehow doubt they will find their input will come back to haunt them, although that is possible. The people involved knew going in that their accounts would be included and hopefully, instead of feeling embarrassed about being at a certain point in childhood, the people featured in this book will see how they have moved far beyond that point and not be held accountable for previous times.

I loved the accounts of how people on the a/A spectrum respond and what educational as well as socialization approaches each family used.

The cartoon method in the chapter about humor and empathy are redolent of Carol Gray of her famous Social Stories - draw comic strips with appropriate captions to explain social exchanges. I like the way the experts' work in some ways overlap and yet arrive at a reasonable explanation. People on the a/A spectrum do not, repeat, do NOT lack the ability to empathize. Rather, people on the a/A spectrum often have to be cognitively "taught" to perceive viewpoints from another person's stance.

Having each child offer input in this book with the statement of trust makes for a very neurotypical (NT) and a/A friendly book. The world is for everybody and not just the NT and this book does a stellar job of being as inclusive of all people. Most people on the spectrum are keenly aware that they are "different" and want nothing more than to fit in and be indistinguishable. The poignant pleas for acceptance and the explanations of a/A behaviors and sensory responses will certainly help propel the NT population further down the Long & Winding Road towards that Acceptance.

No doubt people with Asperger's Syndrome will take this book to heart and learn a lot from it. This is a book that is certainly worth reading and does a fine job of bridging the NT-a/A gap ("Sensory Gap").

This book is a very readable collection of individual families' methods of coping with their own experiences of children with High Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome. The authors are all parents who have been coping with a child who fits one of these categories. Their stories offer both specific activities and approaches to aspects of socializing and educating children with autism or Asperger's, and the valuable perspective of seeing what problems other families have and how they deal with them.

What fascinated me was the glimpse these stories offered into the variant function patterns of the minds of individuals with Asperger's. However, I believe the creative and useful teaching techniques described throughout the book can also have much wider applicability than merely within the world of autism. For instance, the cartoon approach presented in the chapter, "Humor, Imagination and Empathy in Autism," would work well to teach these traits to any children--and all the better on children whose brains are hard-wired to learn them more easily.

As I have a background in publishing myself, I once used short, hand-drawn picture books to teach my preschool/early grade school-aged sons what to expect when I traveled on business. Therfore, I fully appreciated the hard work and imagination that went into the creation of the interactive, autobiographical "book" produced by the parents of Max to ease his entry into second grade, described in the evocatively titled chapter, "Making Friends with Aliens." This technique would be equally applicable to the introduction of any child, but particularly one who is noticeably "different," to a new social milieu.

An Appendix, "Thank You for Trusting Me," rounds out the book with collection of comments by the children themselves: how they see themselves, what helps them, what upsets them. I am impressed by their awareness of how they differ from other kids but also by their willingness to try to overcome the habits and patterns that will get in the way of their ability to function well in a world of people whose brains work differently than theirs.

I thoroughly enjoyed "meeting" these creative and intelligent people, and getting to know a little more about how else the human mind can work. I think these insights would be of immense value to anyone teaching, caring for, or friends with someone who has to struggle with Asperger's syndrome.

First off, the book is wrongly titled. It's not "Our Journey" at all. It's the commentary of a number of parents as to the journey of their children. The journey through High Functional Autism and Asperger's Syndrome is something that the individual makes alone. To suggest otherwise is to say that someone else can live your life for you. While being mis-titled is bad enough, it actually borders on offensiveness when one stops to ponder that these children's neurologies, whether you think of them as gifts or as afflictions, are not actually theirs but rather their parents.

Title aside, the reason why I ask you not to read this book is because it discusses quite frankly and candidly an 11-year-old's fear/fascination with the erotic image of Lola Bunny, from "Space Jam." While this may be amusing and perhaps even somehow enlightening, this frank candor into childhood sexual fantasy is going to haunt this person for the rest of their lives. When this person is 30, there will still be a book, with his photograph as an 11 year old, sharply dressed in a suit and tie right over a few choice paragraphs as to his reaction to his erotic dreams of Lola Bunny. While perhaps this information is vital to allowing neurotypicals a much-needed "roadmap" for "their journey," the idea of protecting the anonymity of this child, who will soon be a teenager and than an adult, is given absolutely no consideration. That autistic people often share information that seems to invite teasing is an unavoidable part of the autistic experience. That this person's parents, and that the editorial staff at Jessica Kingsly Publishers would then decide to print a book to inform the world of this person's embarrassing adolescent sexual fantasies, is horrid.

Out of respect for this person, please don't read this book.

This marvelous book shows five different children going about their lives with their disabilities visible, but demystified. The title really says it all: We can do it! We can do lots of things! The journalistically styled photos show each child in ordinary situations as a child first, and a child with a disability second.

My favorite photo is the one of the boy in his walker playing in the sprinkler; seeing his joy reminds of another famous photo of children playing under a street sprinkler, and of my own childhood. This must be why little children love this book. They get to examine children who are a little different having fun. Perhaps it helps them answer their unasked questions. But believe me, small children LOVE this book.

I'm not sure why we need a catalogue of impairments like this. The pictures are certainly beautiful but I don't understand why we would want to group a whole bunch of children with disabilities together and then offer up all of the private details of their lives. I guess I'm just not sure what the story is here. Is there a plot?

We Can Do It has photographs of 5 children with Down Syndrome, spina bifida, blindness and cerebral palsy having fun and enjoying ordinary activities at home and at school. The unposed (I think!) photographs are refreshing and inspiring to anyone who has an interest in special needs children, focusing on their abilities. I think it will become a classic.

I think this book should be in the library of every preschool and kindergarten in the country. In a world that focuses on what people with disabilities can't do, its beautiful photos show all the things these kids *can* do.

This book makes me think of the 1966 George Harrison classic, "I Want to Tell You."

For many people, adults in particular who have Asperger's Syndrome, which is the spectrum partner to autism, this book is very useful in determining when, where and how to disclose having this sensori-neurobiological condition.

I like the inclusion of many voices, especially those of people on the autism/Asperger's (a/A) continuum. This is a book parents, educators and other professionals as well as people on the a/A continuum will treasure and find very useful.

As an adult with Asperger Syndrome (I identify as an Aspie) and as a clinical social worker, I found this book to be engaging and helpful.
I appreciated the variety of perspectives and experiences, the quality of the writing, the level of detail, and the relevance of the chapters.

This is a long overdue look at the impact of AS diagnosis and it quite comprehensively covers the issues involved with diagnosis and disclosure in a variety of situations such as family, work, school, relationships etc. As a person long since diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome who has sometimes disclosed and sometimes not, with varying amounts of success, reading this book was a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. I think the people most likely to benefit from reading this book are professionals working with people during and after diagnosis who can impart it's wisdom to those who need it when they actually need it. A variety of well known and respected writers in the field of autism and Asperger syndrome have contributed to this guide and it is well written, but overall I found it a bit dry. It is informative, interesting and very relevant, but I don't think it offers much in the way of comfort or answers if that is what you are looking for... but then that would be a lot to expect.

The book was brand new and in perfect condition. The actual book is an easy read and very informative. It shipped quickly too

This book is good. It covers a wide range of topics, with a great deal of information. I would recommend it if you work with the DD population.

This is the most comprehensive guide I have found in the field of developmental disabilities. This book should be a must for service providers to use in training support staff. Parents will find it useful as well, especially those with adult children with disabilties.

I have several friends who have lost their hearing or only have partial hearing. This book is written from a laypersons point of view, and is not technical at all. It gives true accounts of families in therapy situations with hearing loss either as the reason for the therapy or how hearing loss has affected the family in dealing with life's issues. Listen with the Heart uses humor and down-to-earth writing. I enjoyed reading it, giving me food for thought.

This is layperson version of Harvey's book: Pschotherapy with Deaf and H-O-H People. The title must be special to those with hearing loss, since I heard a blind golfer (Kevin Hall) speak that he too listens with the heart.

He is a fascinating human who brings his enthusiasm for life and better relationships to his counseling with those with hearing difficulties. He does this in relating ten counseling cases concerning such as: student-pupil-parent-school faculty tensions; old age and hearing; the isolation and despair of hearing loss; hearing + deaf marriage; parents and birth of deaf child; siblings dealing with deaf sister;

There is much to be gleaned from this read, all written with great sensitivity and joy and humorous style. Harvey demonstrates with his own practice experience how hearing loss affects not just the individual, but those around as well. One will certainly garner a heightened awareness and sensitivity to these individuals, who normally feel low esteem, isolation and depression due to not catching all the hearing world has to offer.

Remarkably, this outstanding counselor has helped many with his kind, but to the point approach.

Hoping to receive some spiritual tidbits, there were really not much of these. Some from Dali Lama, etc. but not much for the Christian. The last case with the older lady who was in close contact with God was exhibited as experiential.

That said, this is valuable resource for those in counseling, or around deaf and hard-of-hearing to raise our sensitivity bars to new levels that we might be more kind resource for these individuals.

I bought and read this book because of a recommendation given to my husband by his communications course instructor. First of all, just having it with me was a communication helper. People would ask about the title and I would explain what it was about and why I was reading it. Secondly, I liked the book because it detailed numerous real life examples of relationships of those who are hearing impaired and includes the writer's/ psychologist's interactions, observations and recommendations for those individuals. But it was also very emotional reading and it taught me some things about myself and my communication issues. My only negative comment: I would have liked to see a few less examples and some sort of summation -- "a putting together of it all" at the end, but the author didn't do so. But I liked the book and think it will prove even more helpful as I read through certain portions again with a view to applying what I learn.

"A practical guide for general audiences who want to learn about disabilities in terms we can all understand." Dr. Kathleen Laundy, Yale School of Medicine

What's next--"Basic Manuals for Friends of the Black"? Wouldn't information about resources, adaptive technology and the ADA be useful for the disabled person too? I can't comment on the content of the book, but I think the title is patronizing and ridiculous.

The short chapters gave me just what I needed to use. It was not overly technical. Being in human resources, I felt I wanted facts and tips. This book was full of them.

Madness attracts and repels human society. On one hand, humans seem drawn to accounts of mental illness. On the other, human society frequently forces those suffering from mental illness towards its margin. Hinshaw's study captures these competitive interests with skill. His narrative form is concise, clear, and easily accessible to the lay person. His account of stigmas and their impact on the treatment of mental illness is nuanced and avoids the pedantry that plagues other authors' work.

While I applaud his work, it is not an unalloyed good. His citation format leaves much to be desired and is cumbersome. A better font should be chosen and the text begs for careful copy-editing. Finally, his reliance on the work of Erving Goffman in Chapter 3 is misplaced, he should have focused on more contemporary stigma-theorists like Link and Phelan.

In short, any student of mental illness's affects on both suffers and society will do well to read this text.

My remarks on this book, the second in Dr. Hinshaw's remarkable trilogy that examines our culture's attitudes towards mental illness, are late in coming.

I've waited for another reviewer to offer a counter-point to the first reviewer's comments about this reading like a textbook. I've suffered through many a dry textbook, and cannot imagine making such a comparison. I find Dr. Hinshaw's writing style extremely clear, concise, and, what's more, very empathic to the reader. Repeatedly, as I found myself responding to a point with "but what about," the next sentence directly addressed that thought. If you're looking for a Time-Life History of Mental Illness, though, complete with voyeuristic depictions of tortuous conditions in institutions, you might find this book less of a page-turner. But if you're looking for a highly intelligent and comprehensive book on this subject, you won't be disappointed.

Mostly, I've delayed writing a review because I feel under-qualified to do the book justice. It seems that highly placed experts in the mental health field should be commenting, not foot soldiers volunteering in their communities, such as me. But it seems such experts do not review books on Amazon.

I know that this book is on the professional radar, because it received an excellent review by Dr. Claire Kelly in The New England Journal of Medicine. It begins with this (and continues at http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/357/3/311):

"Stephen Hinshaw's book will be of interest to readers well beyond the fields of psychology and psychiatry. He begins with a critical analysis of concepts and deftly summarizes the major schools of thought regarding what mental illness is, removing the comfort zone created by the hegemony of our academic departments, disciplines, and personal beliefs. He shows clearly that although many models of mental illness can help us understand various aspects of psychopathology and treatment, no extant model -- nor, perhaps, any conceivable model -- can fully explain what mental illness is or what it means."

The fact is, this topic affects every single one of us, not just academics and clinicians. Do you know of someone, perhaps a family member or even yourself, who has suffered stigmatization due to mental illness? I think most of us do. Individuals, families, and mental-health advocates bemoan society's attitudes, but they typically lack a clue as to how we should go about correcting such attitudes.

Education, some insist. If people understand mental conditions (especially what causes them, including genetics), that surely will ease harsh judgments, fears, and ostracism, their reasoning goes. But, as Dr. Hinshaw writes, the irony of today's better detection and diagnosis, even with the less severe forms of psychiatric conditions, is that education often intensifies stigma. That is, as public perception shifts from viewing problematic behavior as volitional or even intentional to viewing it as having an organic basis ("brain based"), they are more apt to see the person as permanently flawed and unsalvageable.

Dr. Hinshaw's agenda for change explains why this is so--and describes the components of a more complete strategy for creating more enlightened attitudes. But first he lays the historical foundation. For example, we might assume that the centuries have seen a steady forward progression in its treatment of men and women suffering from severe mental illness. But that's not the case. At various points over the centuries, we've risen to heights of enlightened compassion only to fall embarrassingly backwards.

As Dr. Kelly points out in her NEJM review, the reader learns that, throughout the ages, "when mental institutions have looked like prisons, and when patients are treated as though they are prisoners. the sense that people with mental illness are dangerous is reinforced." With our modern-day prisons our de facto mental institutions, one hopes that our country's mental-health decision makers do take the time to read this extremely well-written, cogent, and compassionate book. Because it seems that, here in the 21st century--with the bounty of effective treatment strategies at our disposal-- we should be at an apex and not a nadir.

Gina Pera, author, advocate
Is It You, Me, or Adult A.D.D.? Stoppingthe Roller Coaster When Someone You Love Has Attention Deficit Disorder
ADHDRollerCoaster.com

I found this book difficult to read from cover to cover. In fact, I never succeeded in reading the whole book although I tried several times. Yet, when I opened the book at random, or went to the Index, I found absorbing information, well-written and informative. The problem is there is so much of it. Every subject - and the author finds many, many aspects of his topic to write about - is covered in weighty detail, all given in what appears to be 9-point type. My experience was that within the 200+ pages of this book lays a loving offering of sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, page after page of dense, laborious reading.

Take Chapter 2 (Perspectives from Social Psychology, Sociology, and Evolutionary Psychology) for example. Within the first three of two dozen pages of that chapter, the reader is reminded of what social psychologists and sociologists do and how they do it. A little historical perspective is provided concerning how these two groups similarly and differently have approached and now approach the topic of stigmatization, particularly in shifting the focus of research and theorizing from looking at deep-seated personal tendencies to "emphasizing the universality of social comparisons, the ubiquity of stigmatization processes, and the clear association between social power and stigma" (p. 29). Stigmatization "is embedded in everyday psychological functions (e.g., tendencies to categorize), social processes (e.g., ingroup versus outgroup identification), and structural variables (e.g., unequal social power and justice)" (p. 29). Ingroups and outgroups are defined. Then, faithful to his outline, the author goes on to cover these areas in the following 21 pages, in detail. Keep in mind that this is not the outline of the whole book; this is the outline for Chapter 2 alone!

Do I feel guilty for reviewing a book I didn't complete? Yes, I do. But maybe I've become somewhat hurried and lazy. Maybe I just no longer want to plow through a book that I sense could be very informative and valuable, but which (darn it!) reads like a textbook.

*This is a condensed version of my review of the book in PsycCRITIQUES--Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 52(31), 2007.

Unschuld has a deep fascination for Chinese medicine, as can be seen by his scholarly works in the field. This book is the best compilation of historical facts available in English that I know of. However, Unschuld has a deep bias toward the Western concept of the world and the result is not flattering to the science of China. Chinese science is as scientific in its rigor as Western medicine, matching experience and observation with theory and trial-and-error. It is just that the area of study is not limited to the physical body, but includes the energy body and the spiritual body as well: with no rigid demarcation of the three.

I realy don't know what book the above reviewer read before writing their review, but it certainly appears not to have been this one. Unschuld's premise is that any medicine MUST be understood within the context of the intellectual and cultural history out of which it arises, and not judged or even atempted to be understood from the intellectual and cultural framework of another culture seeking to understand the medicine only. Therefore, students of Traditional Chinese Medicine MUST study Chinese culture, history, and intellectual thought in order to fully understand the emdicine itself. Otherwise it is just a haphazard grab bag of clever techniques, at best. He intends his book to be a start n that direction, giving an overview of Chinese political, cultural, religious, and intellectual history, and attempting to show how this rich history of ideas manifested within the field of Chinese medicine from the earliest oracle bones and shamanic healers to the current attempt under Communism to develop a pragmatic system of primary care totally divorced from the spiritual context that gave birth to its world view and concepts.

This is not a book for the casual reader who wants to learn a little bit about acupuncture. It is, however, a book serious students of Chinese Medicine ought to be thoroughly familiar with.

On the face of it, a book on the history of Chinese medicine may sound about as interesting as watching paint dry. But this excellent book is riveting.

It tells a story with many parallels in the West: medicine is heavily influence by the society in which it is practiced. How we think about people, how to keep them healthy and how to heal them, is a reflection of the prevailing understanding of the time. If you believe that the world is a magical place containing angels and demons then illness may be seen as demonic and its cure as the action of an angel. If, as is common today, the human being is thought of as no more than a biochemical machine, then that's the way that medicine operates.

Paul Unschuld is a remarkably erudite historian from the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Munich. The book is a largely successful attempt to explain the history of Chinese medical theories by positioning them within the belief systems in which they developed. Beginning with beliefs rooted in demonology, traditional Chinese medicine continued to evolve as Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist and the Marxist beliefs held sway. What is remarkable abut Chinese medicine is its resilience: each new wave of theory became incorporated and complemented everything that came before.

The book's central theme is expressed through three elements that have informed the theory and practice of Chinese medicine. First is the idea of magical correspondences. So an illness may occur because an albino calf was born in the village. The second is the empirical, practical medicine that has been developed by every culture: folk knowledge of herbs and other remedies that aid in the treatment of disease. The third is the construction of a body of professional knowledge by physicians and pharmacists. This includes the medicine of systematic correspondences that is used by many traditional practitioners to this day, when they speak of five elements, the twelve organs and different forms of Qi. Over the last five decades this system has continued to evolve in China, with the introduction of ever more Western concepts into the traditional framework of medicine.

If you are interested in the history of ideas and the development of an extraordinary system of healing, this book is an excellent and surprisingly readable resource.

This book was difficult to read because it is so disjointed and un-clear. It has some good experience information, but is more like her personal discombobulated diary than a clear story.

Why is this book important? Many reasons - but one is that it's by and about disability, and it proves beyond doubt that people generally considered 'crackers' have much to say, and much to offer.

More than that, it's a cracking story - full of pain, courage sadness, and hilarious moments of comedy.

The author tells her story in broken bits of narrative, fragments of memory, and simple heartfelt poems (that get more complex and sophisticated as time passes) Like Humpty Dumpty she has to pick up the broken pieces of her mind as the kings' horses - psychiatry, education and state 'care' - try to trample her into the ground.

It's an internal and an external journey that should shatter all our beliefs, if we have them, that there's anyone out there to help if the same thing happened to us.

Not just an interesting autobiography, but the first work by a major new author, Cracked will have your brain reeling.

I got this book for a speech-language pathology graduate course on multicultural issues in the field of Speech Path, but it is a truely great resource for anyone who is or will be working with different cultural backgrounds or anyone who is interested in learning more, maybe evwen about their own cultural background. I like that the book discusses traditions/beliefs of the different cultures both in the US and the other countries. Also, I was impressed by the number of different country cultures included and not just continental "cultures" all rolled into one.

honestly, this book is a bit dry. i use it for a Early Education Development class and i think it's more of a sociology book. it gets a bit repetitive and basically explains what is expected from the title. it just continually goes back to mention that after all the information given about different cultures, the importance of a caregiver being aware of social differences and emphasizes cultural competence when dealing with a child and their family. above all, this book is truly informational, especially from chapters 4 through 9 i think, when it gives a chapters worth of history each on different ethnic groups (african american, anglo-saxon/european, native american, latino, etc.). i suggest using this book for a sociology class or any class that deals with understanding different cultures.