Reviewed by: Liz Antonievich
Published by: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Available
from: Footprint Books, www.footprint.com.au
As a parent of a child with Asperger Syndrome, one of the most frustrating things to deal with is not always knowing how to help my child. Jude Welton's book reminds me in a simple and straightforward way of the difficulties an AS child faces daily and how we can help them overcome their struggles by modifying our responses.
This is a wonderful book because it gives the non-AS person a guide for communicating with and easing the way for an Asperger person. Not only does it identify the many ways these people are different but it suggests responses we can make which will help them to understand the world around them.
This is a very accessible book for non-AS children. The illustrations provide clear and strong messages and the text is direct and unambiguous as a text written through the eyes of an Asperger child would quite likely be. It is also a book for AS children who are aware of their diagnosis. I imagine that a certain comfort and support could be found in reading of others sharing the same problems and acknowledging the validity of their differences.
I was not expecting to find this book so interesting on a personal level. Having always read whatever I could find on AS this book brought me up short. I realise that I spend much time thinking of how I can help my child modify her behaviour to suit the world whereas Jude Welton's book suggests that awareness and tolerance by non-Asperger people is extremely important to an AS child trying to communicate.
Also by Jude Welton: “What did you say? What do you mean?” – an illustrated guide to understanding metaphors. |
