Customer Reviews
Great for family/friends/ and as a reminder for yourself 
2008-04-28
This is a short book that helps understanding your child's feelings and concerns and how to deal with them (it does not break down the different ASDs). The book is written as if your child is speaking to you, which makes it more personal. It has 10 short main points from the child's view, then explains every point more detailed in the second part of the book. This book might help people who are involved with your child, but who don't want to read complicated books on autistic spectrum disorders. I have read many other books on ASDs, but I keep looking into this one to remind myself to be patient and understanding (I especially like points #7 and 10, to focus on the child's strengths and to love him/her unconditionally). If you already know a lot about ASDs, then you probably won't get a lot of new information from this book, but it may help you understand and respond to the child better -- it helped me focus on my child's feelings better than reading a clinical book about ASDs. If you are new to ASDs, then this book is definately helpful, but you might still want to read additional clinical info books about the different ASDs and personal stories written by people with an ASD (like "Born on a Blue Day").
Great Book 2008-04-27
I got this book shortly after my daughter was diagnosed with autism. It really helped me understand my daughter better. It explained things from her perspective without making her sound strange. It's something I wish everyone would read before spending time with my daughter.
Terrific Book for Parents, Friends and Providers 2008-04-25
Of all the books I have read, this is my favorite. My daughter has Autism and I have read thousands of articles and books about the disorder, but this book gives a prospective from the child with Autism. Sometimes we need to look at the world from their prospective to really make the right decisions for them and this book helped me do that.
Wonderful!! Must read!!! 2008-04-21
This book opens your eyes to the world of autism and helps the reader to understand just what it is like for their child. Definately a must read!!
A must read! 2008-04-18
This book is a great book. I have a child who has Autism and have read and re-read this book many times.
Most of the books I initially read concerning Autism addressed the causes, treatments and day-to-day activities.
This one is personal.
This book gives so much insight to autism and helps YOU in beginning to learn to have Autism in your life.
It suggests simple ways of changing yourself in order to help.
Every family member that is close to us has this book.
Simply fabulous.
This is not the most brilliant thing that people make it out to be. 
2008-03-27
Framed with both humor and compassion, the book defines the top ten characteristics that illuminate the minds and hearts of children with autism. Ellen's personal experiences as a parent, an autism columnist, and a contributor to numerous parenting magazines coalesce to create a guide for all who come in contact with a child on the autism spectrum.
Excellent book on the topic 2008-03-27
This is one of the best books on the topic that I've come across. Highly recommended. I also recommend: He's Not Autistic But...: How We Pulled Our Son From the Mouth of the Abyss
THE BEST BOOK!!! 2008-03-08
I think this is one of the best books I have read about autism spectrum. It really helps you understand exactly how your child feels about the world around them. I also think this is a great book to lend out to other friends, parents (of your childs friends or classmates) and family memebers to help them understand what your child is going through too.
One section was good, ten were frustrating 2008-02-13
When I started this book, I thought "what a breath of fresh air!" It seemed so light, focusing on the psychological aspect of autism, which in today's world, seems to go unnoticed. Years ago, autism was thought to be completely psychological. Now the pendulum has swung 180 degrees the other way, and all we ever focus on is the biological aspect of autism. I am extremely interested in the biological aspect, but there are also psychological aspects that warrant attention.
But then she goes into more detail on each of the ten items. This is where I felt like the book self-destructed. There were a couple of themes that I just got tired of hearing, One was a good occupational therapist will help you with x, y, z... All occupational therapists are not the same. And just because you see an occupational therapist, does not mean you child is going to improve. I felt like she was leaving out huge details. What was it that she thought was so great, and why isn't she telling us?
Her lack of details was just annoying. For instance, at one point she's talking about an instance where her son uses echolia (repeating something previously heard verbatim), to answer a question, in this case, she says it's a line directly out of the movie Toy Story. But she never tells us what he said, what was the line? It was an irritating loose end. She does make the point that she read an article written by an adult with ASD where he explained that much of his daily conversation is echolia, which brought her peace. My son still does it sometimes, possibly more than I realize, but it is invisible to 99 percent of the world, so I don't care.
She tells a story about an intervention that was popular in the 90's and how she said "If you do that to my child, I will kill you!" But she doesn't tell us what the intervention was. Again, why bring it up if you won't tell us the details. If it was that bad, why be silent on the subject?
Then there's the constant drumming of "don't try to fix your kid". Well, that's all well and good for her. Her son is verbal, goes to dances, stays at camp for a week, sort of "that's easy for you to say." And in some respects, she speaks out of both sides of her mouth on this subject. In the beginning she made it clear she wasn't going to accept what everyone said about how he wasn't going to ever be able to do numerous things. So she obviously wanted to help her son, possibly even fix him. Had she focused on simply adjusting your slant from fix to help, it would have been more tolerable. She does talk about looking at the good side of ASD, such as instead of lining things up, they are good organizers, but I really felt like she got stuck on semantics, and being politically correct, even though she said that wasn't her taste or style.
On several occasions she criticizes a parent's feelings. For instance, she brings up the vaccine issue while criticizing a parent for being angry that his child was made autistic by the shots. She thinks he's wrong to focus on the damage done to his child, and that he needs to focus on the future. She then says she's not going to get into the question as to whether or not the shots cause autism. Then why bring it up, just so you can criticize the poor man that is devastated his child is autistic? Anger is part of the mourning process; we've all been through it. And don't bring up lightening rod subjects like the vaccine debate then refuse to discuss it.
This book had a great start, but it left me feeling very frustrated. I don't recommend it.
Ten things every child with autism wishes you knew 2008-02-12
This is probably the most helpful book about autism that I own. Everyone who has a child with autism should own this book. I learned so much about my daughter because of this. It is awesome. I bought it for family members so they could learn some things about my daughter. I even bought it for her teacher. It is worth every penny!
