Part one: Understanding autism. Ask "Why?" -- Listen -- Enthusiasms -- Trust, fear, and control -- Emotional memory -- Social understanding -- Part two: Living with autism. What it takes to "get it" -- Wisdom from the circle -- The real experts -- The long view -- Energize the spirit -- The big questions -- A guide to resources -- About the SCERTS model.
Summary
Autism is usually portrayed as a checklist of deficits, including difficulties interacting socially, problems in communicating, sensory challenges, and repetitive behavior patterns. This perspective leads to therapies focused on ridding individuals of "autistic" symptoms. Now Dr. Barry M. Prizant, an internationally renowned autism expert, offers a new and compelling paradigm: the most successful approaches to autism don't aim at fixing a person by eliminating symptoms, but rather seeking to understand the individual's experience and what underlies the behavior.
