cover image Autism Solutions: How to Create a Healthy and Meaningful Life for Your Child

Autism Solutions: How to Create a Healthy and Meaningful Life for Your Child

Ricki G. Robinson, Harlequin, $24.95 (448p) ISBN 978-0-373-89209-9

In the introduction to this comprehensive resource on how to deal with autism, California pediatrician Robinson recounts her first encounter with the syndrome 20 years ago. At the time considered rare, today autism spectrum disorder affects one in 110 children in America, she states. Robinson vowed to find help for her first autistic patient and accompanied the child's parents to a meeting with pre-eminent child psychiatrist Stanley Greenspan, who wrote the foreword to this book and became Robinson's mentor. In 1998, Robinson decided to devote her entire practice to children with ASD and within months her wait list had grown to more than 1,000. In six parts, Robinson discusses autism's symptoms and possible causes, sensory-motor systems, evaluation and treatment plans, communication issues, medical concerns, and how to help the autistic child live a meaningful life. Robinson writes with authority and compassion, pointing out that with a properly devised individual treatment plan (she uses Greenspan's model, called "Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based (DIR)/Floortime," a multidisciplinary approach to evaluation and treatment), all of her clients have made progress, including her first autistic patient, now in college. With her background in pediatric medicine, the author is particularly attuned to medical and behavioral issues that can complicate autism (i.e., allergies, sleep issues, recurrent infections, anxiety). This is a useful and reassuring text for families facing the disorder. (Apr.)