What I am Reading

Raising a Sensory Smart Child by Lindsey Biel and Nancy Peske.This is a really useful book with a lot of good information. Sensory integration is a complicated issue with very nuanced implications and so this book has limited usefulness to parents without professional expert input, but it sets the groundwork for a new way of seeing unusual delays and behaviors in your child, and provides an easy to understand reference once therapy begins, along with tried and tested tips and advice for all sorts of challenging scenarios.

Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. This is a book I'd been meaning to read since long before we found out Remy may have autism. It is the memoir of an autistic savant who grew up in a poor family in England and how he overcame his isolation and anxiety to find love, start a successful language tutoring website, and travel the world to speak on behalf of those with autism. It is a story of hope, but is also a fascinating look into a different kind of mind. It kind of plays a trick on you though, you go into it thinking how different he is, how unusual his way of seeing things, but by the end of the book you feel convinced that he is not so different from anyone else. Considering his remarkable intelligence it is a credit to his humility and his simple, heart-felt prose that this is even possible.

Following Ezra by Tom Fields-Meyer. This is a book of essays by the father of an autistic boy.  It is a quiet book, gentle in its hope, subdued in its lamenting. There are laughs but it is mostly a book of father puzzling out meaning from day-to-day life as the father of a special little boy. He describes the courage he felt when the journey started and how he took umbrage with a well-meaning therapist for suggesting that he and his wife grieve for their son, but whether he realizes it or not, this is a book peppered with grief. I think it may be a cathartic read for parents with a special needs child and it is better written then any of the other books I have encountered on the subject.

The Kid-Friendly ADHD & Autism Cookbook by Pamela J. Compart and Dana Laske. I am not sure about this yet but it is on standby if we need it. Our pediatrician seemed completely dismissive of the idea that Remy may have a food intolerance but we are going to be talking to a nutritionist next  month and so I will let you know what he/she thinks. The book itself makes a compelling case for the impact of diet on cognition and behavior in some children