PARENTING YOUR ASPERGER CHILD: Individualized Solutions for Teaching Your Child Practical Skills

In the crowded parenting category, there are two types of books: those that euphemistically recast time-honored childhood behaviors ("He's not being a brat, John. He's being spirited") and practical reference books, like this one, that offer bracing, hopeful advice about real developmental afflictions. To have written such a book on Asperger's syndrome—a class of autism with a swath of diagnostic markers that can range from attention deficit disorder to obsessive-compulsive disorder—is no small feat. Drawing from their respective experiences with Asperger children in clinical and school settings, the authors move succinctly through the traits and typologies of the syndrome, and into the everyday coping strategies that are the book's strength. Sohn and Grayson also deliver on their early promise to go beyond therapies that "focus on survival" (one chapter offers ways for parents to broaden their children's behavioral repertoire by introducing controlled, incremental crises). Abundant, true-to-life dialogues between Asperger children, their parents and peers model the strategies of school psychologist Grayson and special education teacher Sohn in action. A glossary of verbal cues (e.g., "in your mind" for thoughts children shouldn't voice aloud) offer elegant and unequivocal ways to redirect undesirable social behaviors. These practical solutions, along with language that is authoritative, reassuring and jargon-free, make this book an indispensable guide. (Feb. 1)