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Many autism memoirs, books and advice -- now one for all

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Parents of autistic children can be impressively connected to each other even while feeling painfully alone. Now there’s a book that makes the most of their willingness to engage the wider world, even as it, perhaps, ameliorates their feelings of loneliness. In what’s called the Open Text Project, the University of Michigan Press is temporarily offering free access to ‘The Accidental Teacher,’ a mother’s book about life with a severely autistic child. And here’s the key: The online presentation solicits comments -- paragraph by paragraph -- should readers desire to respond, discuss, share, give feedback...

The foreword, written by Catherine Lord, director of the Autism and Communication Disorders Center at the University of Michigan, offers this overview:

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‘Many observations in the book will be familiar to parents and professionals who work with individuals with ASD: the need to consider (though not necessarily try) any possible treatment, even those that seem far-fetched; the daily concerns with sleeping and eating and disruptive behaviors; the difficult trade-offs in building a life for an entire family and responding to the extraordinary needs of a child with a disability. Yet, in the end, this is a unique story about a boy who loved long, quiet walks; rolling on frozen ground; and banging cobs of corn; a boy who enthusiastically perused books with photographs and had a Houdini-like ability to disappear.’

The writer herself, Annie Lubliner Lehmann, says in the introduction:

‘Parts of this book, the challenges, bureaucracies, humor and bittersweet moments, will be familiar to those who know autism intimately. Yet I have learned that despite meeting similar designated criteria, each story, like each person with autism, is unique. I am no autism expert, just a mother and soldier, one of many in an army of parents. There are many insights to share. My report comes from the front lines. Here is our story.’

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Here’s more about the book. And a previous essay by the author, on her breast biopsy, published in the Los Angeles Times.

And here’s the full book. Comments are more than welcome -- they’re encouraged.

-- Tami Dennis

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