Written by a psychologist and father of an adult son with autism, this warm and practical book shares both personal and professional insights on parenting a child on the autism spectrum from birth through adulthood.

As the oldest statewide program serving autistic people in the United States, North Carolina's Division TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped CHildren) has had a major impact on ser vices for these people and their families. As we move into our second decade, we are frequently questioned about all aspects of our procedures, techniques, and program. Of all the questions that are asked, however, the one that comes up most frequently and seems to set our program apart from others concerns the ways in which we work with families. To help answer this question we identified what we have found to be the major components in our parent-professional relationships, and we elaborate on these with the most current research informa tion, clinical insights, and community knowledge available through the expertise of our distinguished contributors. Our purpose was to collect the most recent information and to organize the resulting volume along the outlines of the par ent-professional relationship found most important in the TEACCH program. Thus, the four main sections of the book include these four major ways profes sionals work with parents: as their advocates, their trainers, their trainees, and their reciprocal emotional support source. To the extent this effort was success ful, we acknowledge that it is easier to organize book chapters along these dimensions than it is to provide their implementation in the field.

When a child is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), what the family really need, and often lack, is positive reassurance and understanding from those closest to them. This book is packed with advice on how extended family members and friends can provide the necessary support. Explaining the diagnosis and characteristics of ASD, this helpful guide uses examples from real families to illustrate the complex feelings that parents and each member of the family are likely to go through after a child is diagnosed. It gives practical tips on help that might be needed most, details the possible changes that will take place as the family adjusts and concludes with a comprehensive guide to other useful sources of information. This book will help strengthen relationships between parents and their extended family and friends, enabling a reliable support system to develop which will remain crucial to the child throughout their life.

Ready-to-implement resources and approaches for effective professional care in school and clinical settings. The reverberations of autism spectrum disorders among parents and siblings can be complex. Parents may grapple with the impact of their child's initial diagnosis, wrestle with the tension between their professional ambitions and family obligations, and labor to maintain a healthy union with their partners. Brothers and sisters may be given less attention, asked to assume a more adult role than they feel ready for, or strive for meaningful connection and communication with their sibling and parents. Although the energy of clinicians, teachers, and other professionals working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder is often focused intensively on the child who is diagnosed, the practitioner can also be an invaluable resource for the child's family. Drawing upon clinical research and firsthand family interviews, this book helps clinicians understand the experiences of parents and siblings of a child with ASD from the time of diagnosis through adulthood. It provides clear recommendations for sensitive, informed professional support. Step-by-step in each chapter, Fiske elucidates such vital subjects as: Understanding the experience of diagnosis Recognizing patterns of parent stress over time Appreciating and navigating the effects of ASD on relationships between parents Involving and providing support for siblings Integrating grandparents and other extended family in care and treatment Understanding a family's culture Identifying and developing effective coping strategies Building a strong rapport with parents and family Guiding parents in the treatment of autism And many more, including key takeaways for assisting families in managing feelings of grief and guilt, navigating support options, treatment resources, and related financial concerns, and calibrating the division of labor in the home. Autism and the Family supplies all the foundations necessary for professionals to understand the full impact of ASD on the child, siblings, and parents and cultivate an empathic, supportive approach to treatment for the entire family.

An interactive workbook full of dynamic activities for children with siblings on the autism spectrum. Through individualized exercises in understanding and empathy, this book will serve to empower the child and strengthen their sibling relationship.

Amid a bewildering range of treatments that promise to alleviate or even cure autism, even the leading researchers can’t predict what will work for your child. As a parent, you are in a unique position to become the practical expert on your child’s needs and strengths. Parenting Your Child with Autism will equip you with family-tested and science-based approaches for meeting the challenges ahead. You’ll learn how to get a diagnosis and navigate the health care and educational systems, make sense of your child’s treatment options, and tap into expert opinions and your own observations to find a treatment program that works. Perhaps most importantly, you will learn how to become your child’s best advocate, and build a better life for your child. This book focuses on the processes and decisions parents of children with autism face every day. To help you build an everyday life that works for your child with autism and other family members, this book shares suggestions that range from practical and educational to philosophical, closing with some personal and professional advice for your journey ahead.

The book explores the lived reality of parenting and caring for children with autism in contemporary urban India. It is based on a qualitative, ethnographic study of families of children with autism as they negotiate the tricky terrain of identifying their child s disability, obtaining a diagnosis, accessing appropriate services and their on-going efforts to come to terms with and make sense of their child s unique subjectivity and mode of being. It examines the gendered dimensions of coping and care-giving and the differential responses of mothers and fathers, siblings and grandparents and the extended family network to this complex and often extremely challenging condition. The book tackles head on the sombre question, What will happen to the child after the parents are gone ? It also critically examines the role of the state, civil society and legal and institutional frameworks in place in India and undertakes a case study of Action for Autism ; a Delhi-based NGO set up by parents of children with autism. This book also draws upon the author s own engagement with her child’ s disability and thus lends an authenticity born out of lived experience and in-depth understanding. It is a valuable addition to the literature in the sociology of the family and disability studies.