Honest but troubling...
I really appreciate the author's belief in "seeing" her son as a whole child, as a child with differences and challenges, not as a series of pathological symptoms that need to be "fixed" to make him fit into the world's conception of normal. She is spot on that with some children who have fairly mild to moderate autism, bonding and working with interests can produce, in the long run, the same development as can intensive early therapy -- particularly therapy based on frustrating the child in order to get him or her to do what the adult wants. Painful as it was to read, I also appreciated her honesty about the impact of an autistic child on her marriage.
However, there were two really big issues with the book for me. First the minor: this book is very workmanlike in its prose, often clunky, sometimes even painful to read. Second, the far more serious issue, which is that this is a really troubled woman who, though a psychologist (counselor at a local high school for kids with problems), does not have any insight whatever into her own problems. In her own mind she is never wrong, her child is perfect and the world is her enemy, all doctors and every therapist but one have no understanding of her child, the schools are all horrible and a bad fit, etc. Sometimes these judgments are made before she even meets the people, sometimes with only what seems like a fifteen minute or half hour visit. I understand that she is trying to argue for an entirely different paradigm through which the medical, educational, and therapeutical industries -- for that is how she presents them and that is indeed what they are to a large extent -- need to view and interact with autistic children, but I think her point would have been more palatable to many people had she been less self-righteous about it.
The disturbances I have noted make it all the more amazing and wonderful that the author has such a close bond with Ezra and has managed to do as much for him as she has.
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Opsimath
Painful as it was to read
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2016Verified Purchase
PJCAI
raw and realistic read about autism
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2012Verified Purchase
Athalia Stoneback
Great Job, Mom
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2013Verified Purchase
GRANDMA
Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2017Verified Purchase
aileen carmona
I loved who sincere Kerry Cohen was when writing this book
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2015Verified Purchase
Laura&Eric
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2016Verified Purchase
jessi
Thank you Kerry for this book
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2011Verified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Mikki
Transparent and vulnerable. Perfect.
Reviewed in Canada on February 13, 2017Verified Purchase