Parent Survival Manual

In spite of the name, this is less a manual and more of a collection of tips and suggestions. The behaviour of an autistic child can range from quirky to nightmarish. It is often hard, in certain situations, to see any solution when parents and carers seem to have tried everything already. This book offers help in the form of anecdotes, mainly written by other parents, about how they overcame various problems.

There are 350 of these little nuggets, each one a success story. No guarantee is given that a strategy that works for one child will work on another. But there are plenty of practical ideas here for managing difficult behaviours. The book is organised into nine sections such as communication, agression, and toileting and hygiene. This makes it easy to skip to the section you need and quickly find what you want. It also pays to take the time to read the whole book, because after a while patterns emerge. For example, many problem behaviours were reduced when carers found ways to stop paying them as much attention. In many cases the key was to work out what the payoff was and remove it.

The quality of the suggestions ranges from the obvious to the ingenious. This variation is inevitable given the large number of contributors. Most ideas are both clever and practical. It is obvious that a lot of research has gone into this book. Each anecdote is accompanied by a commentary by a professional behaviour therapist. There is a tendency for the commentary to repeat what has been said using more technical and verbose language. On the whole though they make it clearer and easier to understand.

Eric Schopler is an advocate of TEACCH. Whilst this book doesn't go so far as to present a complete programme, it is compatible with the basic principles. The suggestions include behaviour modification techniques and altering the environment to suit the child. But you don't have to embrace the whole method to make use of these ideas.

The final chapter on Community Support has a very American bias. The addresses and phone numbers may be useless to those outside the USA. However it does give readers an idea about support groups and organisations, and what parents can do to help each other.

This work covers many aspects of behaviour, from self-harm to picky eating, to developing play skills. If you care for someone on the autistic spectrum the chances are that you will need this book. I recommend it.