The Autistic Spectrum Parents' Daily Helper (review)

The Autistic Spectrum Parents' Daily Helper, a workbook by Philip Abrams and Leslie Henriques, is designed for high functioning children in the autistic spectrum. It consists of two parts. The first is for the parent, filled with tips on interacting with a child in the autistic spectrum and teaching basic life skills. It also has tips on helping others understand your child as well as tips to help your child interact with the outside world. The second part is for your child and has many reproducible pictures, forms, games, and other helps. Both parts comprise about half the book.

This is a very good book, especially for those with children below the age of five. The authors do very well emphasizing the importance of play in helping a child come out of his/her shell. The games are fun and Abrams brings his training (ABA and Floortime) and his own experience into the advice regarding interaction. Unfortunately, although I agree on the importance of structure and consistency, this book doesn't stress the importance of giving your child a space where they are in complete control. My personal experience has been that when a child in the autistic spectrum has a space where they have complete control, their iron-grip on structure outside that space begins to lessen. Even an hour or two where they set the structure helps.

In spite of that, I enthusiastically give this book four stars out of five. Great resource and an enormous asset to any home with a child in the spectrum.