It is easy for us to be experts on the type of developmental disabilities our loved ones, wards, clients, and neighbors have. Toward more mutual understanding & empathy and a deeper sense of community, we will be adding reading, movies & possibly even art & music.
Here are a few resources related to autism.
Temple GrandinDr. Temple Grandin is a remarkable woman with autism who teaches at a University and has made significant contributions to society with inventions & techniques for improving the lives of animals, among which are some which take the terror out of slaughter for farm animals.
She is very articulate about her own process and on the subject of autism in general. She has several books which can be sampled on her website. http://www.grandin.com/ ; then click on books and videos. From there you can sample her books. Also, be on the look-out for the story of her life when it returns on HBO.
Horse Boy by Rupert Issacson. Rupert Issacson tells the story of his own son's emergence from the confining entrapments of autism and how it came to be. It is a remarkable story, told well. Although real, it reads like an adventure story. It is also available on CD. This is quite an unusual remedy and expands the world of possibilities when considering treatments, management, and healing of autism.
Warrior Mothers: by Jenny McCarthy. Tells the stories of several parents and their children with autism, their struggles and some of their successes in reversing symptoms through non-standard therapies. It is unclear why the title refers to Warrior Mothers, since one of the parents instrumental in his son's recovery is a father. For people not, yet, familiar with treatments such as chelation for heavy metal poisoning (mercury and others) and diets such as the "specific carbohydrate diet," it is a good introduction.
Son-Rise: by Barry Kauffman. A father's story of his son, finding what worked, learning the meaning of unconditional love and acceptance without expectation. His son did so well with the constancy and quality of attention he taught them he needed, the family began teaching a model of unconditional acceptance that they developed. It is called the Options Process, and it, also, is described in a book by that name. These books are pretty old, so I went on line to see if they were still around. What I found was that they have given rise to: Autism Treatment Center of America: The Son-Rise Program.
www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/.
Are you familiar with any of the above? If so, how did you find they affected you? Do you have some to share? Remember, they don't need to be on the subject of autism. This was just to get us started. Lets build this library together.
Saskia
