Books for Prep | |
 - Good resourceMy review was prompted more by the comments about autism that were previously posted, rather than any inspiration about the book itself. To start with the latter, although I found the tone self-indulgent, I am feeling generous today and decided to rate the book 4 stars because there are so few articulate resources about processing disorders out there. I am the mother of an elementary school child with a visual processing deficit that is just as murkily understood as APD. So I could well relate to Karen's frustrations in getting the straight story out of the medical and educational establishments, and the struggles to get her child help. My comment about self-indulgence is prompted by the sense I got from reading the book that, perhaps because Karen and her husband were medical professionals, they made lifestyle decisions that may have felt right to them but were probably not the most helpful for Ben. There is a fine line between doing what you as a parent think feels right, versus making personal choices that may have exacerbated Ben's difficulties, even after they knew something was amiss. Being a stay at home Mom in the styx of rural Indiana may have been an idyll for Karen and husband, but it compromised Ben's access to medical, educational and social resources in his critical pre-K years. I found the "this is autism" message mean-spirited and unhelpful. However, I should say that there is a medical cadre that postulates that developmentally-based processing disorders of any kind belong on the mild end of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) spectrum. The "PDD spectrum" is the new millenium term for what used to be called "autism". For what it is worth, this identification does ring true to me. Autism is, in essence, an impaired ability to make sense of the the world around you and your relationship to it. These attributes almost prefectly describe the clinical apsects of audial/visual processing deficits, and their socio-emotional consequences. Rating:  - Get a grip this is NOT autism, it is a motor speech disorderThis book is not about autism. The reviewer on October 30, 2002 was way off base. My daughter has apraxia of speech which is a motor speech disorder. APD is a motor speech disorder. This is the ONLY book I found in our local bookseller not about autism or add. I am glad someone out there has written a book about APD. It is an honest frank book written from the heart. If the author sounds heartwrenched it is because she is. How would you feel if you were told your child may never speak normally but is NOT deaf? I found it a refreshing change from the books that gloom and doom or spout scientific evidence. This is from a mothers point of view and IT IS NOT ABOUT AUTISM!! Rating:  - Stop pretending...this is autism!I finished this book to learn more about this trend of diagnosing "auditory processing". Both the author and her husband are professionals that clearly demonstrate that "professionals" don't always know whatis best. This child is autistic. Karen Foli doesn't seem to want to listen to anyone. She thinks a new term will make her son better. He should have been in an ABA program right away. I am a mother of an autistic daughter. I am tired of people running away from the truth. Karen Foli spends most of the book feeling sorry for herself and blaming her husband. We all had to hear tough news when our children were diagnosed. I cannot stand to read one more book where the mother sobs about herself and her world. I am fortuate enough to know a lot of moms in my position. We are all working hard to stay on top of this disorder. Some of us are seeing real gains, some are not so lucky. None of the fabulous mothers I know walk around making excuses for their kids. They don't just hear what they want to hear. There are better books out there. Don't buy into this Rating: - A MOTHER'S LOVING DETERMINATION FREES HER CHILD.....The author, Karen Foli, is the mother of Ben, a child troubled by sound perception. She made several pilgrimages to "experts" to find salvation for him. The "experts" became what they were by comparing what they already knew. They were of marginal help. Her child did not conform to what they already knew. Selfishly she pursued a selfless journey to find the answer to her child's needs. Driven by maternal love, she was determined to follow her intuitiion, and in the process became an "expert" herself. Her book is an autbiographical journey taking her and her son where no mother had gone before. I sat beside her, felt her anguish, anger and fear, on every trip she made to her final successful effort to free the intelligence she knew was locked within her child. The book is a witness to courage in action, driven by the intensity and determination of a mother's love and the solution found to APD, or auditory processing disorder. Rating: - Different, not defectiveThe pain and frustration of this family's journey through the maze of APD is expressively detailed in Like Sound Through Water. Helpful resources for those researching APD are listed in the end of the book (altho another good resource is the capd list at maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/capd.html). On another level the book is disturbing in effect because of the trials and tribulations that a psychiatrist and PhD communication person went through to find help for their son. If it was this difficult for people with great educational and financial resources, what hope is there for the rest of us? Karen says as much on pg. 253-4 "...Or the parents who didn't have the time and resources to learn new techniques to help their children read and process sounds. They would have no choice but to rely on a system to help them. I shook my head and wondered how a country as rich in resources as ours couldn't offer more. There were millions of children and their parents who were suffering. I felt sad and angry. Guilty for the resources I had, and at the same time, grateful I had them." It seems unconscionable to me that a system like Lindamood-Bell, that clearly does work, costs $50+ per hour....beyond the reach of most people. What is the answer? (Especially if some states use 3rd grade reading scores to predict prison population). The other question I have is what would have happened to Ben had such intense intervention *NOT* occurred? Would he have developed adaptive strategies as his father, the psychiatrist did? Is our educational system creating problems by demanding that all of us be equally competent at all skills at the same ages? In association with Amazon.com | |