BALLANTINE GROUP Let Me Hear Your Voice: A Family's Triumph Over Autism

Feels like reading our own journey. We are in the early stage of treatment and this book was highly recommended by our doctor. Now, I know..why. I hope to write about the success story as hers in forthcoming year. 😊

アメリカでベストセラーになった本です(英語版)。希望を失い、将来への不安ばかりが募る毎日の子育てに悩む、自閉症や高汎性発達障害児を持つ親には、一筋の光を放ってくれる本です。 3児の母であり、その内2児が自閉症と診断された作者は、ありとあらゆる医療機関、療育センター等を渡り歩き、そこで体験し経験した間違った医者や専門家の選び方、また最後にたどり着いたＡＢＡ方式(応用行動分析学)による徹底した作者なりの育児方法が、アメリカ全土を揺るがし、自閉症児等の障害を持つ親へ、「負けるな!」「あきらめないで!」そうすれば願いは必ずかなうのよと言わんばかりの強いメッセージが、この本をつうじて感じ取れるはずです。そして作者は遂に願いを叶えたのです、自分を信じ、自分のこの手で・・・。

My son who is autistic is now 8, in mainstream school and doing very well. when I read this book some years ago I found it to be both comforting and very reasuring with lots of practical help. My son was lucky enough to be in a program very similar to the one in the book and the results are aparent if not achieved with a lot of hard work. This book enables parents to start to help their children if the support is not available for whatever reason. Looking back some years on I would say this was the most important book I read on the subject, and only now apreciate who much is changed all of our lives

I've read some of the other reviews of this book and overall agree with some of the issues raised (hours of very strict ABA to make an autistic child 'normal' at all costs, dismissing special interests as 'perseverations', etc.) but I want to point out that this book was first written years ago. First published in 1993, and at that point the author is looking back in time by several years, so the actual events probably took place in the mid to late eighties. At that point in time there weren't the online support groups, the various autism organizations, the plethora of well-known therapies from Floortime to Affective Based Language to RDI, or in general much awareness of what autism was at all. Parents were left to their own devices to do the best they could and, even if I disagree on some points, who out there could start from square one like that and still manage to come up with every answer, something we still haven't managed today? I will say that, having worked with dozens of autistic children, I find the recovery aspect of the story highly unusual. I've seen children that make tremendous progress in functioning, however, I've never witnessed a child going from totally autistic to totally not-autistic in the span of about two or three years. I'm not saying the diagnosis wasn't correct (although there do seem to be a subset of children who do some really classically autistic things as toddlers and yet do not end up being autistic,) just that I don't think this is typical, even with the best therapy programs. Overall, I applaud this book as a touching story of a family's strength and as a breakthrough in people's thinking on autism treatment. Stories like this one helped more people to see that there are ways to work with and teach autistic children. We may have refined our approach since then, but this realization was an important moment in treatment history.

Decepcionada com a qualidade do material. Muito frágil. Chegou com amassados e um pequeno rasgo na capa. Sei que é a versão simples do livro, mas o preço não justifica isso. Ele não deveria ser tão frágil assim, semelhante a um jornal antigo. Esperava mais da qualidade do material de um livro que custa R$ 87,00.