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Title: Asperger Syndrome and Adolescence: Practical Solutions for School Success by Brenda Smith Myles, Diane Adreon ISBN: 0-9672514-9-4 Publisher: Autism Asperger Publishing Company Pub. Date: 17 May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good scheduling advice but little on pragmatics
Comment: There is a wealth of advice in this book which all parents and teachers should find helpful. Plenty of checklists are offered and numerous cameo case histories are presented. The references are good but perhaps a bit limited (may be of importance only to researchers - no mention of central coherence deficit for instance). The main point of the book is the get schools to recognise and deal with stress build up in AS pupils before it boils over. Some of this will be familiar from Myles' other book on tantrum management.
The advice for high school transition is very practical. Make sure he knows the schedule, pin the timetable everywhere, fix routine reminders inside textbook covers, make sure he knows which teacher tolerates which behaviour, etc. It is all good sensible advice, though I wonder how deliverable it is in the ordinary school setting?
The authors touch on 'circle of friends', travelcards and a host of other supports, but ultimately pin their support hopes on resource teachers and an enlightened school policy. Unfortunately, this is where I begin to part company with the book. Few schools could make the quantum shifts expected, and the authors could have made much more of their advice if they had identified compromise strategies. Teachers are human, not superhuman. Also in my limited experience, parents of AS teenagers often have unrealistic expectations of their offspring's academic performance and that tends to obscure their grasp of daily school realities. The classic example here is the emphasis on the 'gifted' child who must attend a 'gifted' school irrespective of the impact that has on the school and child. The authors tend to cite gifted children examples a lot in their case studies. I don't think this is helpful.
Perhaps unconsciously the book also portrays the AS teenager as very much a ship in the night steering a lonely course from class to class, from teacher to teacher, etc. How to help out here? Again, while friendship strategies are touched upon, no elabaorated plan is developed. A weakness to my mind.
The book presents the AS teenager as very much a patient to be treated by the environment. I don't want to appear overly critical of the book. It is good that adolescent AS are being addressed, however, for the life of me I could not grasp why there is no section on teenage communication pragmatics. The authors simply skate by the whole problematic of communication skills. It seems that as long as your 'gifted' child is doing well academically and no one is hitting him, then we should be pleased. This struck me as a very lobsided developmental philosophy. Interestingly the book points out in footnote in the beginning that it will ignore sexuality and relationship issues. Ignore these? In a book dealing AS adolescents?
Overall this is a good book for advising on schedule construction and maintenance of the daily school routine. It has limitations and depending on your needs they may be significant or otherwise.
Rating: 5
Summary: Clearly written, practical guide
Comment: I have recently completed reading "Asperger's Syndrome and Adolescence: Practical Solutions for School Success", by Brenda Smith Miles and Diane Adreon. I found the book to be informative, and written so clearly that it may be recommended to parents, while thorough enough that it is of use to professionals both for its insight into the syndrome and its practical solutions. I would highly recommend this book to any clinician or parent who has a patient or child suffering from
Asperger's Syndrome.
Rating: 5
Summary: Full of easy to implement solutions
Comment: This easy-to-read book fully describes the characteristics of Asperger Syndrome(AS) that have the greatest impact during the teen years and how to assist each individual with the appropriate level of support and structure. The importance of assessments in covered, letting parents and teachers know what diagnostic assessments are important, how to assess the characteristics of AS, how to do a curriculum based assessment, how to measure sensory-motor, social language, student learning traits and how to do a functional assessment on behavior.
I found chapter four (Supports for Students with Asperger Syndrome in Middle and High School)to be the most beneficial. The chapter provided goals that every person needs and how they can be reached by the individual with AS. Several academic modifications are shared along with social and environmental supports. In each secion the supports on explained in an easy to understand manner. I felt comfortable enough to implement the supports in the book right after I read the chapter.
A case study is shared in the last chapter. The entire chapter is full of examples of difficulties and how with the appropriate supports a child went successfully from third through eigth grade.
The entire book is full of examples, charts and graphs that you can use. I highly recommend this easy-to-read book. If you have a family member or work with individuals with AS this is an excellent resource.
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