Teaching Children With Autism to Mind-Read : A Practical Guide for Teachers and Parents 1st Edition

Excellent book. It’s reported that a large percentage of people with an ASD have mild to severe deficits in their ability to attribute mental states to others (theory of mind). There aren’t many books on the market that specifically target this deficit and this book does just that. Before I go any further, I will say, I couldn’t find much data on whether or not the teaching methods detailed in this book are backed by evidence showing that they work. That’s not to say the methods don’t or won’t produce results, I just didn’t locate any data to support that they would. That all said, I’ve read a handful of some of the best selling “must have” books written on how to implement a home based ABA program, and none of these provide programs or instructions for directly targeting deficits in the ability to apply ToM.This book progresses nicely, beginning with simple recognition of basic emotions through facial expressions, happy, sad, afraid and angry. This is followed by multiple scenarios where a person is illustrated in a particular situation, but the person’s face purposely has not been drawn in. The student then needs to choose from one of the four emptions and state how the person feels. For example, lady being rescued from a burning building. How does she feel? Answer: Scared. Why does she feel scared? There’s more to it than that, but that’s my simplified explanation. From here the book moves into teaching the student desire based emotions. For example there are two pictures given for each scenario. Picture 1 may show a child wanting orange juice, with picture 2 showing the child being handed hot chocolate. How does he feel? Answer: Sad. Again, simplified explanation, but you get the jist. The next section moves into belief based emotions. For these, there are three pictures (and two sub pictures contained within one of the three, one sub picture displays what the child wants, the other is what the child thinks they’re going to receive or will occur). An example of this would be, Picture 1 displays reality, a swing is broken in the park, Picture 2, displays child wanting to play on swing and child also thinks the swing is in working order. How does she feel? Answer: Happy, as she doesn’t know the swing is broken, she hasn’t been to the park yet to see it. Next she arrives at the park. How does she feel when she sees the swing is broken? Answer: Sad. The next sections of the book are based on seeing leads to knowing and predicting actions based on a person’s knowledge.5 Stars for this book, which targets a critical, if not the most critical deficit of people with an ASD. The book is an excellent starting point for teaching ToM, and I can see where its methods could be used by teachers so that they can create numerous teaching examples of their own. The book recommends that the student has a language level of a 5 year old and above, but of course this doesn’t mean it’s written for 5 year olds, nor does it mean 4 year olds wouldn’t benefit, provided they have the language. Excellent resource and a must have for teachers and parents wanting to target an impaired ToM. Great book.

I would recommend this book to individuals who wish more information regarding children with autistic spectrum disorder. There are many issues discussed within the book and ideas to assist children in progressing successfully. I believe this book is geared more toward educators who really want to know, or toward parents and caregivers who want to help teachers learn more effective ways of dealing with autistic idiosyncrosies. Our 8 year old son's teacher have loved the information and found it helpful to meet the needs of many children in their classes, not just those of our son.

I use this book with my social skills groups in private practice (all with kids with autism). It is a wonderful resource to thelp them identify feelings in others. There are LOTS of usable scenarios, should last the whole series long for us! The kids like doing it because it is quick and not too time consuming!

I say this because our autistic boy started using this book before i got around to it. We got a preview from our supervisor so he knew it beforehand. But started telling stories from the pictures in it by himself :)

I work with young children with autism. This book has been incredibly helpful when I help them develop their perspective-taking/theory of mind skills. Highly recommended.

The item is not what I thought it was, but it can still be beneficial in helping me to do a better job with my clients.

I purchased this new and it came used

I had serious questions about Patricia Howlin's realunderstanding of HFA/AS issues when I read her "Autism: Preparingfor Adulthood." Whatever doubts I had then have been resolved not in her favor with this most recent effort.The book is written for training work with very young children. Parents using this material for any of our hyperlexic children over the age of four or five may be sadly disappointed with the results. The book appears written for and at a simplistic level of conversation that our bright older children simply may not tolerate. The cost of the book, no doubt, may have been in developing all of the artwork--the book is heavily line-drawing illustrated--with little thought to making it age-relevant to an older audience. In their first chapter, the authors suggest the book is for use for children from four to thirteen years old. I have my doubts about that. I'm no expert on these matters, but I can only guess this book should be so labeled: "For Children Five and Younger." The book's value lies in its repetitive presentation of different stages or levels of conceptual complexity. I do not take issue with what the authors say or do. I can only surmise that parents of older children would have to engage their own commercial artists to make the illustrations more age-appropriate, and also do a complete story-text re-write for the concepts to ring true with more mature children. Indeed, the authors suggest that is necessary. So why not place these thoughts on the cover and in the promotional material for the book?This book may be fine for a four year old. Intolerable, I would think, to our older kids.I was hoping to find enough material in the book for "transfer" to older child, adolescent, and young to mature adult communications and social skills training, using the model and the training map of the authors. I am sorry to report that I have neither the will nor the energy to do that, as the authors provide a reader looking to this older population with few handles to grasp.Despite the good discussion of the concepts involved at the beginning of the book, the actual use of the book, as "A Practical Guide" appears limited to the age group I identify above.What disappoints me most is that the book appears to be written as a compromise between those who think completely "in their heads" and those who are on the play-room floor. There doesn't appear to be a bright shining light urging all such experts to get out into the real world of older children, adolescents, young and older adults, and test their methods at those levels.In contrast, I found the explanations and practical cognitive mapping exercises of two somewhat "history-bound" authors, Stephen Nowicki, Jr, and Marshal P. Duke, in their 1992 Peachtree Publishers book "Helping the Child Who Doesn't Fit In" to be of far greater consequence and practical assistance. Despite the fact that it was written before the "discovery" for all practical purposes of HFA/AS to the wider audience, their book rings true and presents a pragmatic road map to the semantic lingustic and semiotic language of social interaction sadly missing from the Howlin, B-C, Hadwin 1999 effort.Hats off to the authors for their cognitive model and the approach of this book for pre-school children. Rainboots and umbrellas needed for those willing to slog it out in the trenches of more complex demands and real-life problems of older children.END