Carol Greenburg

This book, as a compilation of all sorts of opinions, elicited mixed feelings in me. It was obviously targeted mostly at parents, since the predominant majority of essays were written by parents. There were some essays that I felt should definitely be read by as many as possible. The ones I can remember off-hand that were very positive were the one about eye contact, the one about writing a letter to neighbors about bullying, the one about toilet training, and the one by Kristina Chew that talked about how to choose the best school for your child. I also liked Emily Willingham's essays. However, some of the essays I disliked because they either enforced certain stereotypes/non-autistic culture-constructed social expectations, promoted a normalization/socialization agenda, or did not take the child's feelings, thoughts, or personality enough into account (were too parent-sided). I've also noticed that the autistic voices section consisted of experiences that were mostly negative, but there were some more positive essays by parents on the spectrum in another section, perhaps to balance it out. Also, "teaching social skills" was a recurring motif throughout the book, which cuts against a recent research finding that autistic people don't inherently have bad social skills but have social challenges due to sensory processing differences.

This book stuck a lot at the question of "what is autism", highlighting that it is a spectrum and bringing out the underlying threads in the mozaic of humanity. I was slightly concerned about the fact that the pseudoscience section dismissed the effectiveness of the GFCF diet as well as Facilitated Communication. As someone who has seen both methods work, I would attest that there is a small proportion of autistics for whom these methods do work. I think that the GFCF diet only really works for those with GI issues in the first place, and can also improve the lives of non-autistic people who may also have the leaky gut syndrome. Therefore, the beneficial effects of the diet can be seen in a certain percentage of the population, but perhaps have been given more attention in the autistic population because the behaviours of autistic people tend to be under more observation/scrutiny in general and the symptoms of leaky gut, if present, exacerbate the already-present autistic symptoms. Also, I believe that FC does serve educational value for a small percentage of autistic people, as I know of people who started typing unassisted after years of FC. In addition, I've seen first-hand FC being performed on a group of people, and some people's communicated language matched their nonverbal expression. However, I think that it is just as commonly, if not even more commonly, a hoax than it is genuine, which is why scientific studies don't yield significant results.

As difficult as it is to review a book like this, I feel that this book represents the strides that we have made to understand and accommodate for autistic people in our society. However, this book only represents a transition, and not the final stop in this journey.… (mere)