Helping Children with Autism Learn: Treatment Approaches for Parents and Professionals

A practical guide to treating the learning disabilities associated with autism. Siegel explains how to take an inventory of a child's particular disabilities, breaks down the various kinds unique to autism, discusses knowledge about each, and reviews the existing strategies for treating them. Bryna Siegel gives parents of autistic children what they need most: hope. Her first book, The World of the Autistic Child, became an instant classic, illuminating the inaccessible minds of afflicted children. Now she offers an equally insightful, thoroughly practical guide to treating the learning disabilities associated with this heartbreaking disorder. The trouble with treating autism, Siegel writes, is that it is a spectrum disorder - a combination of a number of symptoms and causes. To one extent or another, it robs the child of social bonds, language and intimacy, but the extent varies dramatically in each case. The key is to understand each case of autism as a discrete set of learning disabilities, each of which must be treated individually. Siegel explains how to take an inventory of a child's particular disabilities, breaks down the various kinds unique to autism, discusses our current knowledge about each, and reviews the existing strategies for treating them. There is no simple cure for this multifarious disorder, she writes, instead an individual program, with a unique array of specific treatments, must be constructed for each child.She gives practical guidance for fashioning such a program, empowering parents to take the lead