Bryna Siegel

This book advocates harm to autistic children. Bryna advocates removing comfort items as soon as possible to force the child to appear more "normal". It is the equivalent of not allowing a child to use glasses to read, to stop them from being bullied.

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 show more 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 in their child's treatment. At the same time, she cautions against the proliferating, but questionable, treatments hawked to afflicted families. She knows the panic to do something, anything, to help an autistic child, and she offers parents reassurance and support as well as sensible advice, combining knowledge from experience, theory, and research.

For parents, autism in a child is heartbreaking. But it need not be overwhelming. Bryna Siegel offers a new understanding, and a practical, thoughtful approach, that will give parents new hope. show less

This is a collection of descriptions of how to train autistic children. I say train, because the author shows no understanding of our thought processes, no will to understand why we do things (any behavior she doesn't have an explanation for is described as "purposeless", and therefore okay to modify, even if said behavior is essential to some aspect of our well-being or comprehension), and no acknowledgement of how little she knows.

The book is large on data, and small on understanding of show more what that data means. Like many books on autism, it describes "teaching" autistic people without taking into account how we actually learn, what we actually should be learning, and who we actually are. show less