Understanding this unusual inner world - and appreciating the unique
strengths that thinking differently can bestow - will help parents relate to
their children more meaningfully, and make the "outer world" a less scary
place.How do you know if your child is happy or sad, tired or hungry, when all he
wants to talk about is wasps/m-/or the color of subway train doors? What can
you do to reassure a nine-year-old who asks questions about death hundreds of
times in a day? And how can you build a nurturing relationship when your little
girl hates to be touched? Raising a child with autism or Asperger syndrome (AS)
may challenge all of your notions about how children behave and what good
parenting demands. You may even feel completely cut off from the child you
love. That's why understanding how children with autism spectrum disorders
actually think and feel/m-/and the striking ways in which their minds work
differently from those of typical children/m-/is so important. Guiding your
child toward more meaningful involvement in everyday life requires more than
patience and persistence. You first need to enter and explore your child's
unusual inner world, as Dr. Peter Szatmari invites you to do in this compelling
book. With the grace of a gifted storyteller and the wisdom of a seasoned
practitioner, Dr. Szatmari shares the stories of over a dozen children and
families with whom he has worked.; He reveals that people with autism and AS live in a world without
metaphors; a visual landscape, built of images, not language. It's a place
where friendly small talk may sound like a foreign tongue, where tree branches
are more intriguing than people, where hairbrush bristles can feel like nails
on the scalp or a hug like the clamp of a vise. Drawing on decades of
influential research and clinical experience, Dr. Szatmari combines "big
picture" information - the nuances of diagnosis, what is known about possible
causes, and what the future holds for children w
