The Science and Fiction of Autism

For my Autism class I was required to read a book specific to Autism.  I chose The Science and Fiction of Autism by Laura Schreibman.  My assignment is to complete a book review.  As I prepare for the book review I will discuss how I enjoyed the book, how this book is laid out, and some highlights of it.

I was very impressed with the science discussed in this book.  We all know about "bogus treatments" specific to Autism however Schreibman backed up each treatment discussed (bogus or evidence-based).  This was an informative piece with a lot of welcomed opinion writing.  Schreibman shared her involvement with research studies.  She discussed the history of "psychodynamic" theory.  It was so affirming to hear how she would put this universally understood ideology into words!!!

Furthermore, when discussing identification of a core deficit in Autism in chapter 5, she offered a user-friendly assessment criteria.  This criteria included specificity, universality, persistence, and precedence.  Certainly, she spent a lot of time discussing the history of effectiveness of behavioral treatments specific to Autism.  In fact in chapter 3 she spends a lot of time discussing evaluation procedures for diagnosis and assessment.  She included controversies surrounding these treatments.

Alternative treatment methods were discussed in their entirety.  For example: she would begin by mentioning the name of the person responsible for the development of the treatment, and go into an in-depth description of the treatment.  I learned so much more about Floortime after reading chapter 7.  She discussed how these treatments are hard to evaluate, stressing the importance of emperically-based treatment methods.  I was blown away with information specific to genetic involvement in the etiology of Autism Spectrum disorder in chapter 4.  She really goes into depth about the genetic and environmental factors that are responsible for the disorder.

One disappointment would have to be the last chapter, when Schreibman discusses "Educate Autistic Children!.  This chapter begins discussing arguments specific to including students with Autism into the general education classroom.  Understanding the 3 types of arguments is valuable, however, I was expecting Schreibman to take her stand in one of these arguments, however, in her defense, this is probably align with the style of the book.

All in all I would highly recommend this book to those who are fascinated with Autism Spectrum Disorder.