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Raindrops on Roman: Overcoming Autism: A Message of Hope
78 SKILLS AND DRILLS FOR OPTIMUM CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Raindrops on Roman and Whiskers on Kittens...These are a few of my favorite things...Songs, rhymes, and a large repertoire of fun-filled methods bubbled out of this exemplary creative mother, Elizabeth Scott, to gently and firmly teach her son to overcome symptoms of autism.
Raindrops on Roman will move you to tears, punctuated with a few bursts of spontaneous laughter, as you marvel at this touching true story. You will learn very specific skills and drills that she used, what materials to obtain to implement them, and what areas each activity helps to develop and improve. This is a must-have book for all parents and every professional working with children who have autism.
Elizabeth became an educator and spent her career prior to Roman as a teacher. Hopefully, the new recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (screening for autism for all children at 18 and 24 months), along with stories like Roman's will help countless children overcome autism in the future. - Dr. Robert Silver
Raindrops on Roman and Whiskers on Kittens...These are a few of my favorite things...Songs, rhymes, and a large repertoire of fun-filled methods bubbled out of this exemplary creative mother, Elizabeth Scott, to gently and firmly teach her son to overcome symptoms of autism.
Raindrops on Roman will move you to tears, punctuated with a few bursts of spontaneous laughter, as you marvel at this touching true story. You will learn very specific skills and drills that she used, what materials to obtain to implement them, and what areas each activity helps to develop and improve. This is a must-have book for all parents and every professional working with children who have autism.
Elizabeth became an educator and spent her career prior to Roman as a teacher. Hopefully, the new recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (screening for autism for all children at 18 and 24 months), along with stories like Roman's will help countless children overcome autism in the future. - Dr. Robert Silver
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 4, 2021
AHAHAHAHA NOPE. *laughs in autistic*
Let's get a few things straight. Right here. Right now.
1. Autism cannot be "recovered from" or "cured." Those who insist that their child/nephew/niece/friend's child was "cured" of autism, you should really go look up the term "autistic masking." This is when autistic people pretend to be neurotypical and hide autistic traits. We learn to do this subconsciously, by imitating those around us. But this also causes great strain, and can lead to burnout. If we don't have a safe space of some sort to be ourselves (also known as being forced to mask 24/7, even in our own home) this can lead to trauma and mental health issues.
2. Why do we even need to be "cured" anyway? This insinuates that our brains, which work in a different manner than a nonautistic person's, are wrong and need to be changed. Yet nothing about us is wrong. I have mixed feelings about my disability, but on the whole, I would not change anything about myself regarding my autism. I love that I developed a hyperfixation on Japanese in high school and dedicated so much time and energy to studying it that I now am completely fluent in the language. I love when I have moments of autistic joy--being so happy at little things like watching a merry-go-round that I jump up and down and flap my hands. I love how being autistic makes me have a great memory for random factoids, and I love the community that has come together of other autistic people taking pride in what makes them different.
3. The therapies described in this book apparently were a 10+ hour excursion, seven days a week, nonstop. So much so that Roman was having meltdowns (what the mom refers to as "tantruming," and no, tantrums and meltdowns are VERY different). You're making a LITERAL THREE YEAR OLD undergo EXTENSIVE, STRESSFUL THERAPIES for MORE TIME EVERY DAY than a FULL TIME JOB with NO DAYS OFF. Let that sink in a bit. Yes, some therapies and early interventions are helpful. But give the kid some time to be a kid, otherwise, yes, they will be having meltdowns.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, onto the book itself...
See my above comments about why this is A) not possible, B) not desirable, and C) totally ridiculous.
No. A "devastating diagnosis" would be cancer. Autism is a DIFFERENCE IN HOW OUR BRAINS WORK. Autistic children can still do anything a neurotypical kid can, they just might need more time, or a different way of learning how to do something.
If I have to hear the words "regain something that was lost" or "we got our child back" with regards to autism, I am going to SCREAM. WE ARE BORN AUTISTIC. WE ARE ALWAYS AUTISTIC. WE ARE NOT NEUROTYPICAL CHILDREN HIDING BEHIND A "VEIL" OF AUTISM. AUTISM IS A PART OF US. YOU MIGHT AS WELL ACCEPT IT. (I count at least four instances of this or similar phrasing within the first five or so pages of this book, ugh)
Oh, and guess what takes the cake. Later on in chapter one, Scott describes Roman's condition as "worsening." Guess what the reasoning was for this? Because he was stimming.
GUESS WHAT EVERYONE NEWS FLASH. STIMMING IS A NORMAL PART OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE. EVERYONE DOES IT.
For those who are not aware, stimming refers to self-stimulatory behavior. In autistics, this sometimes presents as hand-flapping, chewing non-food items such as clothing or skin, rocking back and forth, or vocalizing (echolalia). But guess what, even neurotypicals do it. You don't recognize it as stimming, but if you've ever chewed nervously on your nails, fiddled with your hair while waiting, or chewed on your lip as you tried to think of something to say, YOU HAVE STIMMED.
I gave up on this one at the end of Chapter One when Scott makes an analogy to the Wizard of Oz and says that she wanted to jump out of a window after her son was diagnosed.
DO BETTER, NEUROTYPICALS. STOP TRYING TO CHANGE US OR ACT AS IF YOU'RE SUCH A TRAGIC PARENT BECAUSE YOU HAVE A DISABLED CHILD. LET US BE OURSELVES.
Let's get a few things straight. Right here. Right now.
1. Autism cannot be "recovered from" or "cured." Those who insist that their child/nephew/niece/friend's child was "cured" of autism, you should really go look up the term "autistic masking." This is when autistic people pretend to be neurotypical and hide autistic traits. We learn to do this subconsciously, by imitating those around us. But this also causes great strain, and can lead to burnout. If we don't have a safe space of some sort to be ourselves (also known as being forced to mask 24/7, even in our own home) this can lead to trauma and mental health issues.
2. Why do we even need to be "cured" anyway? This insinuates that our brains, which work in a different manner than a nonautistic person's, are wrong and need to be changed. Yet nothing about us is wrong. I have mixed feelings about my disability, but on the whole, I would not change anything about myself regarding my autism. I love that I developed a hyperfixation on Japanese in high school and dedicated so much time and energy to studying it that I now am completely fluent in the language. I love when I have moments of autistic joy--being so happy at little things like watching a merry-go-round that I jump up and down and flap my hands. I love how being autistic makes me have a great memory for random factoids, and I love the community that has come together of other autistic people taking pride in what makes them different.
3. The therapies described in this book apparently were a 10+ hour excursion, seven days a week, nonstop. So much so that Roman was having meltdowns (what the mom refers to as "tantruming," and no, tantrums and meltdowns are VERY different). You're making a LITERAL THREE YEAR OLD undergo EXTENSIVE, STRESSFUL THERAPIES for MORE TIME EVERY DAY than a FULL TIME JOB with NO DAYS OFF. Let that sink in a bit. Yes, some therapies and early interventions are helpful. But give the kid some time to be a kid, otherwise, yes, they will be having meltdowns.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, onto the book itself...
"Raindrops on Roman: Overcoming Autism: A Message of Hope" was written to share my journey through our son's recovery from autism.
See my above comments about why this is A) not possible, B) not desirable, and C) totally ridiculous.
"...babies and toddlers who have just been given this devastating diagnosis"
No. A "devastating diagnosis" would be cancer. Autism is a DIFFERENCE IN HOW OUR BRAINS WORK. Autistic children can still do anything a neurotypical kid can, they just might need more time, or a different way of learning how to do something.
If I have to hear the words "regain something that was lost" or "we got our child back" with regards to autism, I am going to SCREAM. WE ARE BORN AUTISTIC. WE ARE ALWAYS AUTISTIC. WE ARE NOT NEUROTYPICAL CHILDREN HIDING BEHIND A "VEIL" OF AUTISM. AUTISM IS A PART OF US. YOU MIGHT AS WELL ACCEPT IT. (I count at least four instances of this or similar phrasing within the first five or so pages of this book, ugh)
Oh, and guess what takes the cake. Later on in chapter one, Scott describes Roman's condition as "worsening." Guess what the reasoning was for this? Because he was stimming.
GUESS WHAT EVERYONE NEWS FLASH. STIMMING IS A NORMAL PART OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE. EVERYONE DOES IT.
For those who are not aware, stimming refers to self-stimulatory behavior. In autistics, this sometimes presents as hand-flapping, chewing non-food items such as clothing or skin, rocking back and forth, or vocalizing (echolalia). But guess what, even neurotypicals do it. You don't recognize it as stimming, but if you've ever chewed nervously on your nails, fiddled with your hair while waiting, or chewed on your lip as you tried to think of something to say, YOU HAVE STIMMED.
I gave up on this one at the end of Chapter One when Scott makes an analogy to the Wizard of Oz and says that she wanted to jump out of a window after her son was diagnosed.
DO BETTER, NEUROTYPICALS. STOP TRYING TO CHANGE US OR ACT AS IF YOU'RE SUCH A TRAGIC PARENT BECAUSE YOU HAVE A DISABLED CHILD. LET US BE OURSELVES.
January 31, 2025
I appreciate the author sharing her journey. I liked some of the ideas she gave for supporting your child to have optimal development. I would like to see authors writing these books to use different language. Rather than, I healed my kid or we beat autism, but I supported my child's development or minimized the prevalence of challenging behaviors of ASD. I am on a journey to help my child's development (which is why I have read many books on the topic).
As a fellow woman of faith, I enjoyed hearing her leaning on the lord. I am also an educator, and as an educator, I was a little put off by her initial perception of autism. I have worked with ASD kids that need low support to high support. As challenging as autism can be, my experience as a mom may not be the same as another's, so I would have chosen my wording more wisely. I get it is scary, the unknown of having a child with ASD, but children and people on the spectrum are also, just that, people. I get she was writing with candor, and to be frank, in the past 10 years we have come a long way with our understanding of ASD.
I am happy for her and that she was able to help her child in the way she wanted. There are some great play ideas in the book, but know the language used in this text isn't neuroaffirming.
As a fellow woman of faith, I enjoyed hearing her leaning on the lord. I am also an educator, and as an educator, I was a little put off by her initial perception of autism. I have worked with ASD kids that need low support to high support. As challenging as autism can be, my experience as a mom may not be the same as another's, so I would have chosen my wording more wisely. I get it is scary, the unknown of having a child with ASD, but children and people on the spectrum are also, just that, people. I get she was writing with candor, and to be frank, in the past 10 years we have come a long way with our understanding of ASD.
I am happy for her and that she was able to help her child in the way she wanted. There are some great play ideas in the book, but know the language used in this text isn't neuroaffirming.
November 19, 2020
Inspirational
Such a beautiful story of hope and grit.Autism really can be defeated.Would recommend this book to any parent/caregiver of an atypical child
Such a beautiful story of hope and grit.Autism really can be defeated.Would recommend this book to any parent/caregiver of an atypical child
July 25, 2009
Just finished reading and this book give me hope while I am navigating through the quagmire of developmental screenings and endlessly wait for appointments while time is slipping away. This book has given me a road map to do something to help my child beyond the 1 speech session a week. I was so lost and inert in my confusion. I may not implement everything but this gives me lots of options.
February 3, 2016
Awesome book. Must read for anyone who knows someone with autism or is going into a field where you will be dealing with people with special needs.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews