Fiction for Special Needs Families

Anyone else find themselves drawn to read books with characters going through similar challenges to your own family? 

We are an autism spectrum household, and on the bedside table at the moment is A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards by Ann Bauer. The very-pregnant mother of two narrator is Rachel, whose oldest son, Edward, begins a slow, painful withdrawal from the world at age 4. It's the story of Edward's descent into autism and the parents' struggle to sustain their marriage under the unanticipated strain. Rachel learns that her late uncle may have suffered from a similar disorder and she delves into her family history to learn more.

On deck is Tilt by Elizabeth Burns, described on Amazon like this: Bridget Fox's life is full of blessings, including her husband Pierce, a talented sculptor, and her two delightful daughters. But her elder daughter, Maeve, doesn't seem to be developing the way she's supposed to. She doesn't respond when she's called. She doesn't like to be touched, and the slightest disturbance sends her into a frenzy. Suddenly Bridget, who has plenty of experience with travel and art and sophisticated pleasures, is facing challenges she's never imagined. And as she copes with loss, change, and uncertainty-sometimes with nothing to hold on to but Maeve, and her sense of humor- she begins to find a strength she's never imagined.

Girls of Tender Age by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith is a memoir that reads like fiction and is set in Hartford so it's got a local feel. As a girl, her classmate was murdered by a serial killer. She blocks out the memory and doesn't recall it again until college, when she begins investigating what happened and who the killer was. The story is told through alternating chapters with Mary-Ann's perspective and the serial killers whereabouts. A side story in this book is about how Mary-Ann's family life was affected by her autistic older brother (at a time when children weren't labeled this way). Her brother's behavior was very severe -- for instance he would gnaw his wrist down to the bone if he heard loud noises, so no one was allowed to make any noise in the house. And heaven help everybody if the doorbell rang! Mary Ann's reflections as an adult of this aspect of her life and how she came to terms with that situation are a key part of why I loved this book.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is a murder mystery told from the perspective of 15-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone, "mathematically gifted but socially hopeless," as one reviewer describes him. His parents have difficulty coping with his quirks. One evening he happens upon his neighbor's dog Wellington, who has been killed. The owner finds him cradling the dead dog and has him arrested. Christopher begins writing a book about his who-done-it investigation, which forces him to knock on neighbors' doors and talk to them, something he never thought he would be able (or want) to do. It's "original, clever, and genuinely moving," as a reviewer says.

If you've read any of these books, what did you think? And what other books with characters who have special needs have you read?

Book Review: Reaching Out, Joining In

This book, subtitled Teaching Social Skills to Young Children with Autism covers play skills, the language of social skills, understanding another person's perspective, and using these skills in an inclusive classroom. Although presented with the assumption that the suggestions will be used as part of an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program, there are lots of concrete suggestions for activities that can be done on their own by parents.

Some examples:

- Use video modeling to help teach play skills. For one child who had a hard time learning to play with friends, videos of adult models playing in a kitchen area were creating, showing them setting the table for lunch, getting lunch ready, and sitting down to eat together. After the child and her friend got comfortable with the lunch script, variations on the theme were created in new videos to imitate, such as making grilled cheese instead of tuna fish and cleaning up after lunch.

- Use play narration to help increase duration and complexity of play skills and improve expressive language. A parent can start by saying "You play and I'll tell a story," and then switch roles and say, "Now I'll play and you tell a story." So for a barnyard set, the story might be, "You are a farmer and you put on the farmer's hat. You are taking the animals out of the barn and putting them in the yard. You are putting the man on the back of the horse and he is riding, trot, trot, trot." If the child struggles to come up with play ideas, the parent can guide her with questions, such as "What about the airplane?" When having the child do the narrating, the adult can say things like "What am I doing with the cow?" and, once the child gets used to narrating, "What is happening now?"

- Teach opportunities for commenting on others' work. Language for during an art project might be "I like your picture," or for a block creation, "That's a big tower!" Start by modeling comments for the child, by pointing out his work and the work of others.

- Teach idioms, slang, and expressions through example. "Sometimes people say it's raining cats and dogs. Is it REALLY raining cats and dogs?" When the "no!" response comes, ask, "What does it's raining cats and dogs really mean?" Other expressions: "You're pulling my leg" (you're teasing/kidding me), "You can't judge a book by its cover" (You can't tell what a person is like from how he/she looks.)

For parents, this book is a great introduction to techniques that may be used in the classroom, such as how preschool teachers interact with kids during centers time, how turn taking is taught, and how rule cards can provide a visual reminder of activity specific rules and can provide a review of rules before play.

The final chapter describes the inclusion (mainstream) classroom environment and how a child with autism can become part of the class with the right support from parents and teachers. And with mastery of the foundational skills introduced in this book, children can fit in more comfortably with their peers and enjoy their daily lives.

Co-authored by Mary Jane Weiss, Ph.D., BCBA, and Sandra L. Harris, Ph.D., Reaching Out, Joining In (2001) will be available for check-out from the Stratford SEPTA Parent Resource Library, located inside Second Hill Lane's library, on Wednesday evening, Jan. 11, during the workshop on how to tell if your child is making progress in school.