Customer Reviews
Very Insightful 
2008-04-11
This book has helped me so much to better relate to my 3 year old twins who have autism. They are so far non-verbal and by just trying a few of the techniques in this book, I have gotten more eye contact and more interaction. What the author says makes so much sense and he tells it in a way that I can relate to. It's easy to read, when so many of the autism books out there make me feel like I should have a PhD to grasp them. I highly recommend this book to parents and caretakers of someone with autism.
Fantastic!!!! The one books I've been looking for!!! 2007-11-25
This book is fantastic!! I wish I had found it a long time ago! This book gives you tips on what you can do now with your child! And it's all very easy to understand and easy things you can do! Such as:
1. Don't react
2. Make eye contact a priority
3. Join with the stims
4. Respond differently to the crying
5. Give your child as much control as possible
6. Focus on your attitude
7. Work one on one in a non distracting room
8. Be dynamic with your child.
9 Get more Lanquage
10. Make sure food isn't part of the problem.
It explains each one in easy detail. I finally feel like I can do something to help!
Autism -knowledgeable and experienced? 
2007-11-20
Mr. Levy's book is a disservice to the countless families looking for information to assist them in helping their autistic children. The suggestions made in this book are rudimentary at best, simplistic, and stem from a lack of understanding of basic child development and disordered speech, language, and cognitive development. Indeed a child who is diagnosed as Autistic or PDD ought to begin receiving intervention with licensed and competant interventionists, those with backgrounds in child development, those who have trained extensively. In fact such programs are sponsored by individual states in the USA-it is called Early Intervention, and therapists will come into a child's home until the age of three several times a week to work with a family at no cost to the parents. In stark contrast to Mr. Levy- a self proclaimed "professional", who will come to a family's home and spend three days with a child and charge their parents thousands of dollars (according to Levy's website). In fact it was an Early Intervention parent who first inroduced me to Mr. Levy's book, saying that a friend had mentioned it to her. I was sorry to report to her that I found the book to be of little to no value. Perhaps this is because Mr. Levy has no degree in a related field, he cites no data to support any of his views nor to support the efficacy of his work. Yet, he is quick to assert that schools are bad-although he implies that he has never worked nor even visited a school or Early Intervention center....His book is replete with non-substantiated criticisms of parents as well as of professional's tactics, as well as descriptions of his own often silly and simplistic ideas for setting up an autism program. He would be better off leaving such work to those who are truly licensed and trained in such areas.
fantastic book 2007-11-12
This is a great book. We have already used several ideas in the book and found them to be exciting.
a great start 2007-10-08
After reading this book I am ordering twenty: for all the people who work with my daughter, all our family and everyone I know who has an autistic child! It explains so much better than I ever could just how to reach her!
It is a one night read, very commonsense and straightforward. Others may find it "out there". I can vouch that it's tried and tested and beyond "not doing harm" I think it may just be pretty darned helpful!! You get the feeling that there's more Jonathon Levy is not saying. Clearly it's YEARS of experience condensed drastically. I think the idea is, try it and wait and see (do this with an open mind! As if anything will work if you're waiting for it to crash and burn!)then if you like what you see get back online and look up the books that started the Son-Rise program (Son-Rise, A Miracle To Believe In etc by Barry Neil Kaufman).
What I will suggest is this: READ IT! It's not expensive and it may turn you upside down on how you deal with your autistic loved one. Upside down isn't a bad thing: IF YOU ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU'VE ALWAYS DONE YOU'LL ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU'VE ALWAYS GOT. But if there's more... like an enriched relationship, a deepened appreciation... are you willing to give it a shot, try something new, and move out of your comfort zone to get it?
Advice to empower parents and caregivers...Fantastic!!! 2007-09-20
"All children with autism have ways of dropping into their own world, leaving us behind for a minute, and hour, a day."
This is the essence of autism: a disorder that is, at its heart, about interaction. Many of the symptoms associated with autism come from either a lack of paying attention to other people or a lack of interest in joining in with the rest of the world.
Because this is the case, it is important that when you work with your child, you are addressing the core issue of autism: your child, for one reason or another, is not spending enough time in our interactive world.
What You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Child with Autism gives you the best techniques you can do right now to work with your child and draw him or her back into our interactive world.
The ten techniques in the book are not just explained in detail, they are also illustrated by true stories of Mr. Levy's work with children with autism (and their parents).
Topics include:
Don't React: How you respond to your child's behaviors can make all the difference. Learn why most people are ineffective in discouraging their child's 'problem' behaviors and how you can do it differently.
Make Eye Contact a Priority: Understand why eye contact is vital to your child's development and easy steps you can take to help your child to look more.
Join with the Stims: A different and powerful approach to your child's self stimulating and repetitious behaviors.
Respond Differently to Crying: Most of us give children great reasons to cry and act unhappy. Learn to teach your child a more effective way to communicate with you and the rest of the world.
Give Your Child as much Control as Possible: Most children with autism are told "No" much of the time by their parents, teachers, and family members. Make interacting with people more attractive to your child by allowing him to do more of what he wants and moving against him less.
Focus on Your Attitude: A hidden factor in your child's development is how you feel as you work with her. Learn why this is the case and how to feel better, more of the time.
Work One-On-One in a Non-Distracting Room: Why school isn't the best place for your child to develop and grow. Understand the three main factors in a successful educational environment.
Be Dynamic with Your Child: Enthusiasm matters to your child's growth. Learn the three tools you can use to demonstrate energy, excitement, and enthusiasm.
Get More Language: There are three categories of language ability, which does your child fit into? Master techniques that will enable your child to improve her speech, whatever her current level.
Make Sure Food Isn't Part of the Problem: An explanation of dairy and wheat intolerances, and why sugar isn't helping your child. Also, how to introduce new foods so he actually eats them.
When parents feel their world spinning out of control, What You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Child with Autism puts the power back in their hands to work with--and help--their child.
Practical, Down To Earth 
2007-08-29
This is a very good guide for parents and teachers who wish to waste no time in treating their autistic child or student. The author "sells" his ideas very quickly and effectively with a powerful introduction. He's been there, seen the worst, done it and has numerous successes stories under his belt.
The 10 steps he recommends (listed and briefly explained in the synopsis) require very little preparation to execute. A few of the tips are obvious. Some are enlightening and some are downright controversial. Do they all work for all autistic children? Only reliable research data will reveal the whole and objective truth, but many of the exercises recommended by the author probably won't hurt. Some may even be very effective.
The wonderful thing about some of the author's insights is that a lot of his advice is good not just for autistic children but also for normal children who don't behave well. My only complaint is that there are probably more tricks than these that the author is not sharing with us yet.
NJR 2007-08-25
I would recommend this book to parents who have just found out their child is autistic because it offers some helpful advice on dealing with an autistic child on a practical level. It also provides some helpful hints on what the parents need to work on asap with their child such as eye contact, behavioral problems, stemming, and offering different foods to your child so they won't be stuck on the same food preferences which may or may not be healthy. I would add to this book a chapter on helping your child to talk. Bumble Bee language tapes offered on-line were very helpful to our family with making sure our autistic son could speak and communicate his wants and needs which helped eliminate his frustration and early behavioral problems. The parents have to keep talking with their child and practice the very important eye contact to help their child succeed in life.
Something to think about 2007-08-23
This book is thought provoking. I'm the mother of a child with autism, as well as a professional who works with children on the spectrum. I highly recommend this as a must read!
What you can do to help your child with autism 2007-08-05
Most of this book has realistic, good, down to earth advice for how to help your child with autism. I am uncomfortable with the idea the author seems to hold that autism can be "cured" if only the parent does everything right and devotes their entire life to working with their child. I am also uncomfortable with his assertion that schools cannot work well with children with autism. I agree with some of his ideas about educating children with autism, but feel that those issues CAN be addressed in a special needs classroom, and eventually and for many children, in the general ed classroom. He does parents a disservice by suggesting that they should disenroll their children from school and try to do all the educating, caretaking and teaching themselves. This is too much for any one or two people to handle without a support system. He does not suggest a viable alternative. Even the group he works with only works hands on with the children for one week! I will take the good ideas and work with them and use my best judgemment for the parts I find problematic.
