Autism: A Practical Guide for Parents

by Alan Yau

Theory is great, but as a busy parent of a young child with autism, what you would really like is a practical guide: with ideas, tips and strategies that you can use right away.

Oh, and you want a book that is concise and easy to understand, right?

This book is what you're looking for.

Think of this book as a collection of sparks. Real sparks ignite fires. The sparks in this book will ignite ideas in your head about how to teach your child with autism.

Here's an overview of what you will learn in this book:

How children with autism are wired differently, and how that affects the way they learn.
Why Intensive Play is so important to everything else.
Why it's so hard to get your child's attention, and what you can do about it.
How visual tools can help your child, and how you can use them easily.
Why focusing on well-being is so important, and some simple steps you can take to ensure you do.
What general strategies will help you teach your child.
Why behavior difficulties happen, and some ways you can help.
Why today's technology is making it easier for children with autism to communicate, learn and much more besides.

This book will give you ideas and strategies that you can use immediately with your child. Many of the strategies are made clearer by the inclusion of examples from the author's own experience. You will see echoes of your own child in some of the examples, and they are sure to provide lots of light bulb moments for you.

Genres: Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Nonfiction, Parenting, Self Help, Psychology, Amazon, Disability

116 pages, Paperback

First published November 24, 2012

Reviews

[Lani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read several books on Autism and countless internet articles. They all tell me what Autism is and give examples of cases they have reviewed. There is a lot of good information out there but I was looking for help now. This was the first book I've read that gave me actual ideas on how to help my 5 year old son! While there is no substitute for my son's pediatrician, I needed help with the everyday at home activities. This book gave me insight to simple things that no one else had suggested. An example was to print out pictures for his schedule so he could "read" what he needed to do next. There has been a lot less friction just from this simple change. I also discovered that children with Autism have problems sleeping through the night. No one told me this, not even his doctor. This information helped with the guilt my husband and I were dealing with thinking that our parenting skills weren't up to par concerning his sleep issues.

While this book isn't for everyone, I found it extremely helpful for my son's age group and place on the Autism Spectrum.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan did a good job with this book. It is full of helpful hints, greats examples, and plenty of information that he has acquired from his personal dealings with Autistic children at his school and camp. It gave me a little more insight and some ideas to use with my son. Although it seems to be intended for children younger than my son(15) it is nonetheless useful in my life, and gave me a afresh view on things that I have gone through and continue to experience today. Obviously not everything in this book is directed to all ASD kids, but it is vauable by being able to take the information that pertains to you and going with it....as well as learning more about other behaviors and tendencies that others are dealing with.

[DDog · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is on the autism spectrum myself, rather than a parent of an autistic child, I wasn't sure I'd get much out of this book but it was free at the time so why not. And then after reading the introduction I wanted to cry, because I'm used to things directed at parents being insulting and aggravating towards anyone who is actually autistic, but this book is great. It's clear the author truly respects the kids he's worked with and makes a genuine effort to understand things from their point of view rather than simply dismissing them as unmanageable and insensible. Some of the advice doesn't really apply to me since it is written for parents, but feeling understood by proxy was really nice, and there are definitely a few strategies I'm hoping to use to make my own life easier.

[Carina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and very insightful.

[Bethany Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful

I would rate this more 4.5 stars, as though quite short, it was definitely interesting. I'm not yet a parent, but I've been put on the waiting list to be further assessed for ASD, yet after learning this I realised just how little I knew about the disorder.

This book was very easy to read and some parts were rather relatable, even though it's predominantly aimed for parents of children with ASD. Also, I still found myself learning more about the condition and being able to put things into better perspective. I would highly recommend this book to absolutely anyone and just wish that there were more.

[Ana Wrenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great suggestions and advice

My son was recently diagnosed as being on the spectrum, so education is very important to me. This book provided me with great advice, examples I could relate to, but did not overwhelm or "lose" me. All of the suggestions are very doable even with a busy schedule. I can't wait to get more information from the Facebook page.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really helpful and straight to.point

I love how it straight to the point with all his advice a d tips. Plus I love that you can also see right away he cares and knows what he talking about because he lived it. Great boom with amazing tips and help. Given me more confidence in helping my daughter with her asd thank you.

[Gemma Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book hit every topic clearly

I can’t wait to start putting into practice some of the ideas from your book .

Hopefully these will create a happier child , that will then create a less stressed family thank you so much

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

For younger children

This book is aimed at younger children, maybe eight or even less. It was of limited use for my eleven year old daughter.

[Chie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful!

I have learned a lot of things from this book and will keep this on the shelf for future use and reference.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and well written.

[Jean Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appreciated the real life story and abundance of examples of what works and doesn't work. The highlights I made show those things I found helpful.

[Stephen Clynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alan Yau has worked as a teacher and has been involved in helping children with autism spectrum disorder for 20 years. In this book he offers advice to parents so that they can help their child.

Before reading this book, I knew nothing about autism. Boys are 4 times more likely to have autism than girls. About 1 in 88 children in America are now identified as having autism. People with autism have difficulties in three areas, known as "the triad of impairments": social interaction, social communication and rigidity in thinking. There is currently no cure for autism - and many individuals would argue that they don't need to be cured.

I found this book a wonderful eye opener. It let's you into the mind of the child with autism, so that you can experience the world from their point of view. Alan has written a great book that is very easy to understand. He appears to be a great teacher and really knows how peoples' minds actually work, whether the person has autism or not. This book is a great mixture of theory, problem solving and case studies. Because each aspect of autism covered ends with a case study, you really understand how peoples' brains are wired and how they feel. I found the mindset of autism so very easy to relate to.

I am not the parent of a child with autism but my day job is a coach driver for National Express. Passengers with autism do not wear a badge to alert the driver but can have a distressing journey because of the ways our industry works and how frequently things change. Reading this book has really helped me to understand the mindset of passengers who I will unknowingly meet every working day.

I really enjoyed reading this book and Alan is clearly an expert in his field. His talents as an author are great, the structure of this guide is spot on and he explains everything really well, so it does not matter if you knew nothing about autism beforehand. I can find nothing wrong with this book and I learned a great deal. I found this guide a very good read and it get's the top score of 5 stars from me.

Autism is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2012.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a very good primer (short, concise) for autism. Our son is on the pretty high-functioning end, so I skipped over some of the book that didn't apply to me, but overall it was great, practical ideas and new ways of thinking about things. He does a good job of balancing the unhelpful "oh, they're wonderful just the way they are, they're just misunderstood" with the also-unhelpful "if you squeeze the square peg hard enough you can cram it into the round hole that society has for it". I think the only criticism I would say about the book is that it's actually too short on theory: I don't feel like I got much insight into how to think like my child, just in how to handle unwanted behavior, or approach certain situations.

[Kristin Blackwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I downloaded this to my kindle on World Autism Day. I didnt know anything about it when I started reading it.

My son is 10 and was diagnosed with autism at age 3. He is very high functioning, but is also visually impaired.

The information in the book is probably very helpful to most of the parents who have children with autism. It's easy to follow and gives great examples of how these tactics have helped other children.

However, most of this book is telling you to go to the reference page. A lot of "here, on the reference page, are more materials to guide you".

[Dunktdunk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book I received free on amazon in e-book form. I have given it a rating of four stars as it's material while basic is easily understood for most parents whom this author has targeted. As to information for the practitioner or professional you will not find anything in this book that you have not already been taught or read. This book is for parents who need practical everyday solutions in learning how to relate to a child in the ASD spectrum.

[Stuart Kenyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative but a touch outdated

There are some good points in here, and the book is well written. Some parts are outdated, however: for example the "triad of impairments" concept is fast becoming passé. There are still a lot of useful hints and tips - I found the "intensive play" section particularly helpful. Overall, this is a worthy purchase for parents, carers and professionals alike.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

practical information

This book gives good insight to understanding the autistic mind and practical techniques for dealing with behavioral issues. The resource section is very useful as web sites will continue to be available. It's a good starting point to learn about dealing with this condition.

[Amar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introduction to ASD and great practical advice


I was at a loss concerning my child's behavior. Then I read this book, and now I have an elementary understanding of ASD and some tools to better help my child.

[Laura Cleinman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plain and practical

Explains in simple language how autistic children see the world....great simple suggestions...a must read for anyone parenting,friending or working with people with ASD

[Trina]

Informative. I am not a parent of a child with autism, but I work with children on the spectrum. I liked how specific stories were shared showing how it worked, but also pointing out not everything will work for every child.

[Michelle (RavenLily) · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of practical and useful information. Some things already knew and some I didn't. I plan on buying the book so I can skim through and highlight and look back on the info to help me with my child.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to autism. It was a quick, easy book to read. As a special education teacher and mother of a child with autism, I would highly recommend this book to others.

[Jeremy Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very concise, meaning short, accurate and focused. I learned a great deal from reading this book and have been able to apply some of the methodology to good effect.

[Gemma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good ideas.

[Shari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some information helpful for this IA who works with a child with ASD in school.

[Chris Kuehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource

When I was reading I could see my son in there and can relate to what you were saying. I would recommend this book.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book because I have a grandson who is on the spectrum. I learned a lot about people with autism and how to deal with them.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book ever

He is a parenting hero!
I hope he makes more books. In 2015 this year! I

[Tiffaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

My child was recently diagnosed with Autism and this book has been a great help.