101 Tips for Parents of Children with Autism

Reviews / Votes

Inspired by the cognitive-developmental theory of psychologist Dr. Arnold Miller, Dr. Theresa C. Smith has written a much-needed guidebook for expanding the communication, social, and problem solving skills of children with autism spectrum disorders. With heart-warming anecdotes and humorous "intermezzo", Dr. Smith offers keen insight into the disordered perceptions and sensory sensitivities which evoke challenging behaviors and impede adjustment. More importantly, the book offers a treasure chest of surprisingly simple, yet highly effective strategies to help children navigate around underlying obstacles and make better sense of a chaotic environment. I highly recommend this invaluable resource to parents and caregivers, or anyone else for that matter, who wants to establish a genuine relationship and make a meaningful difference in the life of a child on the autism spectrum. -- Michael J. Kowalski , Principal and School Psychologist, Crossroads School, Westfield, New Jersey Dr. Arnold Miller's name is known to many in the field of ASD through his writings about the need to harness the drives, obsessions, and compulsions of these youngsters transforming them into interactive exchanges that build communication and resilience. His interesting ideas and integration of theory and practice have appealed to many over the years. One problem has been a difficulty in translating his thoughtful and creative ideas into specific treatment approaches. Now this problem has been addressed with this new book by one of his long-time parent collaborators who describes 101 different intervention ideas and integrates them with the theoretical foundations that Dr. Miller and his followers thought were so important. What this book adds to Dr. Miller's appealing theory is many practical and easy to apply strategies that have proven successful in implementing his ideas and these practical activities will be of great interest to his long-time followers and newcomers to his ideas alike. -- Gary B. Mesibov, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 101 Tips for Parents of Children with Autism is an outstanding contribution to the field of autism spectrum disorders and fills the gap that currently exists in cognitive developmental therapeutic approaches to understanding and working with this population of children. The book will appeal to parents, teachers, clinicians, therapists and other professionals working with children on the autism spectrum. As a professor in a Faculty of Education, I will certainly introduce this text in my coursework for its generalizability to educational and clinical contexts. Congratulations to Dr. Theresa C. Smith for honoring Dr. Miller's legacy and capturing the essence of over 40 years of work. -- Dr. Sonia Mastrangelo, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Lakehead University, Orilia Campus, Ontario, Canada This is an American book written by a parent of a child with autism who has read extensively around the subject... The book is a practical guide to accompany The Miller Method, a developmental approach used with children with autism....The strengths of the book are that it gives a lot of clear and practical suggestions for dealing with all the concerns parents of a child with ASD may have, including such things as communication difficulties, sensory concerns and challenging behaviours. Almost every behaviour or problem parents would have is
mentioned, along with some accompanying ideas for management.... The book would certainly provide a good resource for teachers, therapists and parents. -- Kirsty Gilmour, Pediatric OT, The Evelina London Children's Community * Children, Young People & Families Occupational Therapy Journal *