Product Description

"Voices from the Spectrum" is a compelling collection of personal accounts from people on the autism spectrum and those who care for them, including professionals, friends and family members. The broad scope of this book presents insights into the autism spectrum from many different perspectives - from first-hand accounts of the autistic child's school and childhood experiences to parents' and grandparents' reactions to a diagnosis. A number of chapters written by professionals explain their motivations for working with autistic people and reveal what they have learned from their work and how it has affected their lives. The contributors describe experiences of autism from the mildest to the most severe case, and share their methods of adapting to life on the spectrum.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #408802 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 268 pages

About the Author
Robert A. Naseef, Ph.D., is a psychologist, author, and father of an adult child with autism. His book Special Children, Challenged Parents: The Struggles and Rewards of Parenting a Child with a Disability has received international recognition. Cindy N. Ariel, Ph.D., is a psychologist in independent practice. She is the co-founder and director of Alternative Choices, a group psychotherapy practice which provides information, referral, and guidance to families that include a member with special needs.

Customer Reviews

Great Idea
This book is a great idea… parents, grandparents, siblings, people with autism, and professionals share their wisdom… or at least their feelings and memories. Admittedly wisdom sounds much better.

I would recommend this book to anyone apart from myself… it is useful and relevant and with over 60 personal accounts from a diverse range of people it is a handy and good value guide to the range of perspectives that can be found on this subject… but it just wasn’t my thing. Strictly speaking I avoid books written by parents of kids on the spectrum. As an adult with Asperger syndrome who can remember what it was like to be a kid with Asperger syndrome, most parents attitudes just make me cringe.

It’s not that I don’t think what they have to say is valid, it’s just if they don’t make me nauseous with their saccharin sweet melodrama they usually offend me with their subtle and misguided bigotry. I have to say though, most of the ones in this book weren’t that bad, but it is still not my first choice of reading matter.

I was always going to be a tough audience to appeal to for this book, which is 60% from the family’s perspective, 22% from a professional perspective, and just 18% from an autistic perspective. Overall though it was sensitively and thoughtfully done, so even though this was just a 3 star experience for me, it gets a recommendation of 4.