Overcoming Autism
Finding the Answers, Strategies, and Hope that can Transform a Child's Life
Lynn Kern Koegel, Claire Scovell LaZebnikLaZebnik's son Andrew was diagnosed with autism at the age of two and a half. At the time, he was completely nonverbal. Using Koegel's ABA, Andrew is at the point where he is functioning as a normal sixth grader. When a child is diagnosed with autism, his parents are often distraught. If they are sad/mad together and move on quickly, this will be better for their marriage. To get a nonverbal autist(or any child, really) to speak, hold a desired object and prompt until a vocalization is made. Then give the child the object. After that, move towards specific vocalizations for specific objects or groups of objects. If the sounds aren't the English words but still have some definate meaning, the child will get the idea of words, and will gradually move towards the English ones. To overcome fears, Koegel believes in using desensitization. That is, bring the child closer and closer to the scary sound or object until the child doesn't mind being in the object's presence. How does a parent deal with self stimulation(stims)? It's ok to motivate a child using stims as a reward, as this will not increase them. Involve a kid as much as possible, and the stims will be reduced. And when the child is old enough to understand, explain that a stim is not appropriate in public.
Each chapter on overcoming your child's autism first has a general explanation by Koegel, questions and answers by Koegel, and then a Mother's Perspective by LaZebnik. The mother's perspective part I give flying colors. Koegel, however, leaves too much out or brushes over what she doesn't want to talk about. For example, Koegel says that a child for whom early intervention is used has a 90% chance of learning language, meaning verbal language. She briefly mention PECS even. However, most of the book is about children who not only learn to talk but also fit Koegel's idea of cured- showing none of what she thinks of as signs of autism. Strangley, Asperger's is given only passing mention. Also, the questions are often not answered in their entirety. For example, one question says that the parent has been told that her child is autistic and retarded. Is that possible? Koegel answers by saying that autism looks like retardation but is not retardation. But she doesn't answer the question, which is, can autism and retardation co-exist? They can. Also, from reading this book, I get the impression that Koegel thinks that ABA is the only helpful therapy out there. But she ignores very common co-morbid disorders, despite mentioning some of thier symptoms as common in autism. Both authors press strongly for mainstreaming children. They state that that classmates will not be cruel, that that is a myth. And while parents and therapists might be able to make it a myth, it very defenitly exists. Despite brief mention of difficult finances in the first chapter, Koegel seems to assume that parents are at the very least able to throw themed birthday parties monthly. Autism does not hit only the rich, and many of the strategies are too expensive for the majority of Americans to afford.
On the more positive side, this book gives some practical advice. It also tells you what behaviors generally lead to other behaviors, and tells you what strategies ABA uses. Also, the book is written such that you can pick to read the chapters about behaviors that concern you, and ignore the rest.
Question: At what point is autism cured? Can autism be cured? Does eliminating symptoms mean a cure?
Careful reading.
