Helping a Child with Nonverbal Learning Disorder
or Asperger's Syndrome
A Parent's Guide
by Kathryn Stewart My favorite statistic from this book: 12.8% of schoolchildren in the U.S. are in special ed. Keeping in mind that special ed kids are often in school longer due to early intervention and late graduation, that's still a large fraction of schoolkids. NLD and AS kids are often a part of that 12.8%. This book focuses on the weaknesses of NLD and AS people, and mentions their strenghths as well. It does this with short descriptions of people whom the reader should assume have NLD or AS, diagnostic lists(which were difficult to follow on account of asking the reader to compare his child with the norm, and do you know what the norm is?), and explanations of what symptoms are. It also covers the possibly related disorders ADHD, OCD, and mentions SID. The distinction that the author makes between AS and HFA is that people with HFA talk to have their needs met, and the AS person talks to communicate. Since I know people with HFA who talk to communicate, I don't like that distinction. The author does draw from her experience at the Orion Academy, a college prep high school for teens with AS and NLD.
Educational reading.
