Parents' Education as Autism Therapists

Parents' Education as Autism Therapists is an introduction to Applied Behavioural Analysis from a parents' perspective. It begins by explaining basic concepts such as prompt fading, shaping, extinction and generalisation. This is a useful how-to book if you aren't quite ready to pay for a more expensive manual about this educational method.

The second chapter takes a more academic look at ABA. Ken P. Kerr is characteristically defensive of its value, dispelling myths and pointing out examples of research that has validated this approach. It's unfortunate that almost every book advocating an approach to autism has to justify its use, such is the suspicion of bogus therapies. For anyone who has already read the arguments elsewhere, it would be preferable to read more about the method itself.

The next chapter discusses methods of dealing with challenging behaviour. This is a topic of great importance no doubt to many parents with children on the autistic spectrum. Ian Taylor focuses on the importance of first figuring out the causes of problem behaviours. Easier said than done, but made simpler with the techniques of collecting information that Taylor describes.

A large portion of the book concerns Colin and his mother Laura as they go through the first year of intervention. It's a detailed case study that examines 17 interventions that were used. It gives you a good idea of how the ABA method works in practice, and also a feel for how interventions need to be individually tailored to each child. There are further examples of treatments for different children in the chapter on what we want to teach our children.

This book isn't a complete how-to guide, but it does give some useful pointers and explains very well what this approach involves. It recognises that parents will often be the ones responsible for a large part, and sometimes all, of any programme. As it's written by several different authors the tone is quite varied. Although it's not inaccessible it sometimes comes across as a bit dry. Anyone new to Applied Behavioural Analysis, or who still feels they have a few things to learn, will find this book a practical source of guidance and ideas.