Let Me Hear Your Voice

When Let Me Hear Your Voice was first published, it was something of a landmark. Applied Behavioural Analysis was little known at the time, and it drew fierce criticism from those who believed that it did not work, and that it was unneccessarily gruelling, or those who feared it would result in "robot" children. Since then ABA has gained far more acceptance, and this book played a large part in that process.

Let Me Hear Your Voice is a personal account of a family's experience of autism from diagnosis and despair through to recovery. Maurice (very sensibly she does not use her real name) begins by describing her initial horror when her daughter was diagnosed as autistic. At the time, autism was widely believed to be incurable and there was widespread ignorance about the condition. The book was written in 1993.

The bulk of the book concerns Maurice's attempts to find a treatment at whatever cost. They try both Holding Therapy and Applied Behavioural Analysis. It's a lesson in how even the most intelligent of people can allow themselves to believe anything when they are desperate. Fortunately they do find something that works, and she explains how they worked a recovery on first one child, then the other.

This account doesn't go into great detail about how ABA works, or how you can use it with your own autistic child. But it does offer a strong message of hope, as well as an explanation for all the bogus cures that are touted, and why so many people fall for them. It is well worth reading.