PSY355 - Morin

Dr. Spock? Check. Penelope Ann Leach (Remember her?) Check. What to Expect When You're Expecting? Check. I had a seven hundred dollar Bellini crib for God's sake! Everything was perfect ...and so begins Kim Stagliano's electrifying and hilarious memoir of her family's journey raising three daughters with autism. Always outspoken, often touching, and sometimes heartbreaking, Kim Stagliano is a powerful new voice in comedic writing her "Kimoir" (as she calls it) is the next must-read within the autism community and the literary world at large.

Randi Davenport s story is a testament to human fortitude, to hope, and to a mother s uncompromising love for her children. She had always worked hard to provide her family with a sense of stability and strength, despite the challenges of having a son with autism and a husband whose erratic behavior sometimes puzzled and confused her. But eventually, Randi s husband slipped into his own world and permanently out of her family s. And at fifteen, her son Chase entered an unremitting psychosis pursued by terrifying images, unable to recognize his own mother, unwilling to eat or even talk becoming ever more tortured and unreachable. Beautifully written and profoundly moving, this is the heartbreaking yet triumphant story of how Randi Davenport navigated the byzantine and broken health care system and managed not just to save her son from the brink of suicide but to bring him back to her again, and make her family whole. In "The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes," she gives voice to the experiences of countless families whose struggles with mental illness are likewise invisible to the larger world.

At the age of two, Carly Fleischmann was diagnosed with severe autism and an oral motor condition that prevented her from speaking. Doctors predicted that she would never intellectually develop beyond the abilities of a small child. Although she made some progress after years of intensive behavioral and communication therapy, Carly remained largely unreachable. Then, at the age of ten, she had a breakthrough. While working with her devoted therapists Howie and Barb, Carly reached over to their laptop and typed in "HELP TEETH HURT," much to everyone's astonishment. This was the beginning of Carly's journey toward self-realization. Although Carly still struggles with all the symptoms of autism, which she describes with uncanny accuracy and detail, she now has regular, witty, and profound conversations on the computer with her family, her therapists, and the many thousands of people who follow her via her blog, Facebook, and Twitter. In "Carly's Voice," her father, Arthur Fleischmann, blends Carly's own words with his story of getting to know his remarkable daughter. One of the first books to explore firsthand the challenges of living with autism, it brings readers inside a once-secret world and in the company of an inspiring young woman who has found her voice and her mission.

A heartwarming and hopeful memoir of a father's experience raising his autistic son. When Tom Fields-Meyer's son Ezra was three and showing early signs of autism, a therapist suggested that the father needed to grieve. "For what?" he asked. The answer: "For the child he didn't turn out to be." That moment helped strengthen the author's resolve to do just the opposite: to love the child Ezra was, a quirky boy with a fascinating and complex mind. Full of tender moments and unexpected humor, Following Ezrais the story of a father and son on a ten-year journey from Ezra's diagnosis to the dawn of his adolescence. It celebrates his growth from a remote toddler to an extraordinary young man, connected in his own remarkable ways to the world around him.

When his son Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson was devastated, afraid he might never be able to communicate with his child.nbsp;But when Isaacson, a lifelong horseman, rode their neighbor's horse with Rowan, Rowan improved immeasurably. He was struck with a crazy idea: why not take Rowan toMongolia, the one place in the world where horses and shamanic healing intersected? THE HORSE BOY is the dramatic and heartwarming story of that impossible adventure. In Mongolia, the family found undreamed of landscapes and people, unbearable setbacks, and advances beyond their wildest dreams. This is a deeply moving, truly one-of-a-kind story--of a family willing to go to the ends of the earth to help their son, and of a boy learning to connect with the world for the first time.

She looked into my eyes and blinked hers slowly and deliberately, like a stroke victim, to show me that although she couldn't speak, she understood what I was saying to her. I stroked her hair softly. 'I know you're in there, honey,' I told her. 'We'll get you out.'" Despite the horror of seeing fifteen-month-old Elizabeth slip away into autism, her mother knew that her bright little girl was still in there. When Elizabeth eventually learned to communicate, first by using a letterboard and later by typing, the poetry she wrote became proof of a glorious, life-affirming victory for this young girl and her family. I Am in Here is the spiritual journey of a mother and daughter who refuse to give up hope, who celebrate their victories, and who keep trying to move forward despite the obstacles. Although she cannot speak, Elizabeth writes poetry that shines a light on the inner world of autism and the world around us. That poetry and her mother's stirring storytelling combine in this inspirational book to proclaim that there is always a reason to take the next step forward--with hope.

Jeni Decker is five-foot nothing and one hundred and [redacted] pounds;a self described roly-poly, forty-something, Reubenesque bon-bon of a gal, often called cute but never sexy. She has two sons with autism on opposite ends of the spectrum (Jake and Jaxson), a husband who prefers hunting to household chores, an Australian Shepherd named Sugar, and an albino frog named Humbert Humbert. This is her story; a brash, personal, and some-times shocking memoir of one woman's determination to raise two healthy kids with autism and keep her sanity in the process. It's not always easy. Between poop incidents, temper tantrums, and the "helpful" advice about parenting from her fellow citizens in the grocery store, Jeni often finds herself wanting to throw something. With chapters like: "Tickling the Weiner," "Why I Hate Pokemon," "Santa: Give it a Friggin' Rest, Already," and "Oprah's the Reason My Kid Thinks I Want to Drown Him in the Tub," I Wish I Were Engulfed in Flames also includes mini-chapters written by her eldest son, Jake. Readers looking for laughter and inspiration will find it here aplenty, along with tons of surreal anecdotes that will have you either shaking your head in disbelief (for those unacquainted with the world of autism) or nodding with recognition (for those who are). As Jeni says, "I developed a new 'normal.'"

Well-received on initial publication, The Mind Tree is truly an enthralling read. Although he is severely autistic and nearly nonverbal, Tito's ability to communicate through his extraordinary writing is astonishing. At the age of three, Tito was diagnosed with severe autism. But his mother, with boundless hope and determination, read to him and taught him to write in English. She also challenged him to write his own stories. The result of their efforts is this remarkable book, written when he was eight to eleven years old#151;comprised of profound and startling philosophical prose and poetry. During a New York Times interview, Tito scrawled on a yellow pad, "I need to write . . . It has become a part of me."

In Not My Boy , Rodney Peete offers not only a heartrending, candid look inside his personal journey with his son's autism but a first-of-its-kind, inspirational road map that will help families facing similar challenges to move forward. Effectively woven throughout Peete's moving account of his life with his son R.J. are the powerful voices, insights, and dreams of other fathers, high-profile figures as well as unsung heroes, who've traveled this difficult path. Autism affects four times as many boys as it does girls. For their fathers, expectations and hopes are drastically changed--as NFL star Rodney Peete's were when his son R.J. was diagnosed at the age of three. After a period of anger and denial, an all-too-common reaction among fathers, Rodney joined his wife, Holly, in her efforts to help their son. With determination, love, and understanding, the family worked with R.J. to help him once again engage with the world. Eight challenging years later, R.J. has gone from the son one doctor warned would never say "I love you" to a thriving, vibrant boy who scored his first soccer goal while his dad cheered from the sidelines.

In 1991, Mark Osteen and his wife, Leslie, were struggling to understand why their son, Cameron, was so different from other kids. At age one, Cam had little interest in toys and was surprisingly fixated on books. He didn't make baby sounds; he ignored other children. As he grew older, he failed to grasp language, remaining unresponsive even when his parents called his name. When Cam started having screaming anxiety attacks, Mark and Leslie began to grasp that Cam was developmentally delayed. But when Leslie raised the possibility of an autism diagnosis, Mark balked. "Autism is so rare," he thought. "Might as well worry about being struck by lightning." Since that time, awareness of autism has grown monumentally, although the territory of severe autism--of the child who is debilitated by the condition, who will never be cured--has been largely neglected. "One of Us: A Family's Life with Autism" tells that story. In this book, Mark Osteen chronicles the experience of raising Cam, whose autism causes him aggression, insomnia, compulsions, and physical sickness. In a powerful, deeply personal narrative, Osteen recounts the struggles he and his wife endured in diagnosing, treating, and understanding Cam's disability, following the family through the years of medical difficulties and emotional wrangling.

Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, this one-of-a-kind memoir demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within. Using an alphabet grid to painstakingly construct words, sentences, and thoughts that he is unable to speak out loud, Naoki answers even the most delicate questions that people want to know. Questions such as: "Why do people with autism talk so loudly and weirdly?" "Why do you line up your toy cars and blocks?" "Why don't you make eye contact when you're talking?" and "What's the reason you jump?"

How do you create an ordinary family life, while dealing with the extraordinary needs of an autistic child? Meet Mickey - charming, funny, compassionate, and autistic. In this unflinching portrait of family life, Liane Kupferberg Carter gives us a mother's insight into what really goes on in the two decades after diagnosis. From the double-blow of a subsequent epilepsy diagnosis, to bullying and Bar Mitzvahs, Mickey's struggles and triumphs along the road to adulthood are honestly detailed to show how one family learned to grow and thrive with autism.

Giving a father's insight into life with his daughter Maria, aged 12, who has autism, this comic tells the story of their week holiday in the Canary Islands, Spain. Delightful illustrations and dialogue between father and daughter show the day-to-day challenges that people with autism and their carers face, and how Miguel and Maria overcome them. Funny and endearing, this comic helps to show how Maria sees and experiences the world in her own way and that she's unique, just like everyone else.

In See Sam Run, award-winning writer and journalist Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe describes how her parenthood quickly descended into chaos as her son, Sam, became uncommunicative and unmanageable. “I’d grown to hate making entries in his baby book,” she writes. “The energy I had before he was born, when I wrote paragraphs anticipating his arrival, was gone now. Writing down Sam’s barest achievements felt fraudulent.” Little by little, she found a new truth: that by learning to understand the ugliness inside herself, she learned to love her new life and her son, and to harness, at last, the energy needed to realize Sam’s fullest potential.

When we tell someone that our child is autistic, the most common response is a sad face and an apologetic look. I hate it when people say "I'm sorry to hear that". Parenting a child on the autistic spectrum can be tough at the best of times, but few books take the time to celebrate the love and laughter an autistic child can elicit in their parents and those around them. In this warm, honest and laugh-out-loud tale of bringing up Bobby, now ten, Georgina Derbyshire shares and rejoices in his 'slightly different' childhood. As she outlines momentous events in Bobby's life, from the day he decided he was a dog (continuing life as a canine for a year afterwards), to the time he catapulted an innocent shopper into a mountain of strawberries, Georgina repeatedly challenges the perception of autism as an affliction, maintaining that neurotypical people often make far less sense. Through her light-hearted and hilarious storytelling, she reveals how social codes and psychological games make the neurotypical world a very confusing place to live in, more so than ever if you happen to be a young boy with a passion for rocks, tape measures and trains.