Signposts
For some reason I’ve been thinking alot recently of a book that was published last year and that I enjoyed greatly. It is Voices from the Spectrum: Parents, Grandparents, Siblings, People with Autism, and Professionals Share Their Wisdom. It’s the kind of book I would like to see a whole lot more of, a symphony of diverse voices, which somehow allows all those nuances and contradictions that I am sure we all find in our expererience of autism.I used to find that after reading books with practical advice on how to parent my aspergerian son, my mind instead became contracted with the burden of having to look upon my son as disabled, in order to then help him. I found that I could not engage with the difficulty part properly until i had a full and simultaneous grasp on the wonderful okayness of him. Helping and supporting but also celebrating and cheering him on his journey. Who knows, he might just have a wonderful life. In any case it will be his one precious shot at human existence. And i would like to stop and relax enough to thoroughly enjoy his efforts.So I find books like this very helpful, because the celebration is there right next to some really difficult stories. And all the colours in between.One that really stood out for me, in terms of articulating the internal experience, was an account by a 62-year old autistic man from South Africa, Rauidhri Finn. What begins as a semi-coherent stream-of-consciousness account of a series of catastrophic meltdowns, then reveals that he is, in fact, an academic, and has developed an external ‘PhD voice’ which he then introduces to us. This second part is intelligent elucidating prose, but is not, he explains, written with his real voice. The preceding scrawl is how he truly mediates his experience. Deeply fascinating stuff.In my late night meanderings, I’ve stumbled across some real gems that have managed to fill in the puzzle a bit for me. I’ll dig them up. And I thought it would be useful to start a page on this site, for mini-reviews of great books and articles. So…if anyone would like to recommend ones that have opened their mind, or really helped them work with their child, or are just good reading, please post a comment. I’ll see if i can get an email address for this purpose if you want to do it that way, and will post it here if I do.
Cally whitham wrote on February 14th, 2010 at 8:17 am:
What a great resource this could be. While reading about ASD can be educational, I too agree that it can really rob you of the hope you daily attempt to kindle that your child will grow up ok, despite their different approach to life. Most books do seem to come from the premise that ‘your child is not ok, this is why and this is what you need to do to fix them or make them fit in’. While these sorts of books can be very beneficial they can also be quite depressing.
Surely now that the statistics are something like 1 in 100-150 of children with ASD, it is the time for an acceptance of a ‘new breed’ with books and other types of media ‘promoting’ this diversity and exploring how this growing population can benefit future society.
I look forward to reading more publications with positive messages that promote the benefits of ASD to parents, the workforce and wider society.
Justin wrote on June 21st, 2011 at 8:26 am:
This is great, thank you for sharing. I am interested in learning more about Autism and Aspergers. I find it an intriguing subject, especially since there seems to not be a lot of information available.
Corky wrote on August 1st, 2011 at 12:27 pm:
Thanks so much for writing about this book! I have been told about it, but I could not remember the name. I just happened to come across your site today and there was the information! Thanks for such a great post!