by Tami Goldstein, OutskirtsPress, ISBN 9781478714132This is a book where a mother shares her journey with her daughter through autism and sensory Processing disorder to what they call functional recovery to independent living.
As a mother of a high functioning son, who I would assume
could now be described as being in Functional Recovery; I am always interested
in reading what I can about children on the Autism spectrum. All our
experiences are so different. Some parents practically stop their own lives to
take on getting their child the best possible help and taking up the call to
deal with doctors, schools, therapists, etc. I know I couldn't do that so am
very thankful for what we could do with my son and I'm very proud of where he
has come from and what he has now accomplished.
Probably one of the best things about this book is learning
a bit about the different therapies, tests, etc. that are now available to
children. I wish the book would have gone into more detail describing some of
the more useful therapies. At least though they were named which would allow
parents to look them up on line to get more information.
The book also seemed to be out of sequence as the story
unfolded which made it hard to follow. I felt like we heard more about the
difficulty the mom was having with Heather's school districts than actually
about Heather. I think better editing would have made for a tighter book that
made it easier to follow the story.
I also think that we were denied parts of the story that
would have helped us understand what Heather was going through during her early
years. In the timeline in the back of the book, we find out that during her
life Heather had at least eight surgeries but why and what for is missing. I
assume the author was trying to shield Heather's privacy, but I can't think of
any series of surgeries that wouldn't have affected her autism in a negative
manner, as any child going through 8 surgeries would certainly be impacted and
not necessarily for good. Also how mom and dad deal with an autistic child
going in and out of surgery might have been helpful information to those of us
that also have to put an autistic child through surgery. Handy hints are always
helpful.
One thing I was extremely curious about is what kind of
grant Heather got to buy her home. How does she maintain a home with all the
costs of home ownership on 25 hours of work a week? How she copes as an adult
would have been a very interesting chapter in the book and one that would give
some encouragement to parents still struggling in the early stages of this
syndrome.
