A Valuable New Tool for Teachers and Therapists

The authors of the popular Tasks Galore book series have developed an exciting new information-gathering tool that is now available for sale through our bookstore.

Titled Listen and Collaborate: Creating a Parent/Professional Partnership, this is a questionnaire set that is designed to help educators, therapists, and other professionals create targeted educational and therapeutic programs for students with autism and related developmental disorders. It is the authors’ view that a collaboration between professionals and parents is essential, and this tool allows professionals to obtain key information from parents and other caregivers in 8 major areas, ranging from expressive communication and social development to routines and self-help skills. The parent/caregiver questionnaire provides important information about each student, and it can be used to document a student’s progress over time. The completed questionnaire offers specific information that can help teachers formulate Individualized Education Program (IEP) goals for the student, and it also provides parents with valuable documentation about their child to share with other professionals, if they need to do so. A two-page student questionnaire is also included as part of the set.

Two versions of the questionnaires are available for purchase. Version 1 is designed for use with preschool and elementary learners, and it is also available in Spanish. Version 2 can be used with middle school, high school, and adult learners, and is available in Spanish as well.

Teachers and therapists who are trained in Structured Teaching methodology will be particularly interested in this valuable tool. The authors (Laurie Eckenrode, Pat Fennell, and Kathy Hearsey) are award-winning Division TEACCH-affiliated professionals who have provided extensive training in Structured Teaching to parents and educators for many years.

Send In the Idiots Now in Paperback

Kamran Nazeer's brilliant book, Send In the Idiots, is now in paperback. (Yes, I know. I don't like the new cover as much, either.)

For those who haven't discovered this book yet, or were waiting for it to come out in paperback form, I can't recommend it enough. We hear so much about children who undergo early intervention programs, but what happens to them as adults? Kamran Nazee was one of those children, and in this book, he tracks down four of his classmates, and tells their stories intertwined with his own. He also tracks down his teachers and talks to them about issues of autism advocacy, such as whether it should be considered another legitimate state of being, similar to the deaf community.

In exploring the adult lives of his former classmates, he explores many fascinating ideas about how the larger world perceives individuals with autism, as well as how individuals with autism perceive the larger world. In one particularly poignant chapter, he explores the way one of his classmates is distanced by his partner, turned into something not-quite-human, by the label of "genius." Another classmate became a speech writer for the Democratic party during the 2004 US election cycle, and he and Nazeer explore some of the reasons they think the party failed to present themselves well. Not all adults with autism are happy and successful, though. The final classmate Nazeer tracked down had actually committed suicide. He spoke to her parents about her life and her struggles as she entered adulthood.

Nazeer's book offers a look at the broad range of people who make up the adult population of people with autism, which is an extremely valuable addition to the current literature. Exceptionally well-written and accessible to a general audience.

Banishing Verona

I recently finished reading the novel Banishing Verona, by Margot Livesey. It was a book suggested to us by an attendee at the ASNC annual conference, and we were surprised to have never heard of it before. One of the things we've noted is a lack of fiction for adults in the autism book field, but, with the amazing mainstream success of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, this seems to be changing. This seems to me to be a very good thing, because it is when things become more accepted and commonplace that they start appearing in mainstream fiction of writers mostly unconnected with autism directly.

In this case, Livesey says in the acknowledgements:

I'm grateful to those who talked to me, both professionally and personally, about their experiences with Asperger's syndrome.

I have to say, I think she did a fantastic job creating a real and very likeable adult character with AS.

I've had a hard time deciding exactly what to say about the story of this book, because I don't want to give too much of the plot away. The story has many unexpected twists and turns, and they are what make it so hard to put down. While I was reading this one, I had several days where I had to remind myself that I should, in fact, go home when the workday was over, because the book would be there to read when I got back in the morning. So I'll try to give you a basic idea, without giving too much away.

The story takes place in London, and is told in alternating sections from the points of view of each of the two main characters. Zeke Cafarelli is an adult man with AS. He has a successful house painting business, and enjoys doing all his jobs right, with a lot of attention to detail. His parents, on the other hand, think the painting business is a way of rebellion, and would far prefer for him to take over their produce shop. Verona McIntyre is a pregnant single woman slightly older than Zeke, who shows up out of the blue at a house he is working on, claiming to be the niece of the owners. She stays for two days, helping him paint, talking about anything than comes to mind, they unexpectedly fall in love, and then she disappears, leaving behind her grandfather's diary.

This is when Zeke's whole life changes. As one might expect for a person with AS, he has never felt very comfortable with change, and he has many problems with anxiety. At one point in the past, he had become completely agoraphobic. Now he finds himself confronting people he doesn't know in an attempt to find this mysterious woman, boarding a plane and flying to Boston on short notice, befriending new people in a strange city, and, just for added flavor in the background, having to mediate his parents' health crises and failing marriage.

Verona's story, too, is quite complicated. Before the book started, she was a successful radio interviewer with her own morning show. But now, a very strange series of events has thrown her life into chaos, and seems to be taking Zeke along for the ride, as he has become her anchor in the storm.

The dual perspectives on the story, and the sheer bizarreness of the continual series of near-misses that makes up their strange courtship, keeps the reader hanging on, wondering just what will happen next. I won't give away any more. You'll have to read the book to find out what happens!

Autism Awareness Month 2007

April is Autism Awareness Month! Therefore, during the month of April, if you place an order through our website and use the promotion code AAM2007 during checkout, you will receive 10% off your purchase!

Also, for AAM, the bookstore will be traveling to events. The soonest upcoming event is the Cabarrus County chapter of ASNC's 1st Annual Autism Awareness Fair, on Thursday, April 12, 6:30-8:30pm. It will be held at the NorthEast Medical Center (NEMC), in the Medical Arts Building, Hamrick Theater, in Concord, NC. If you're in the area, please stop by!

ASNC Bookstore's Top Ten Bestsellers List for March 2007

Starting with our February 2007 sales, we are listing the Autism Society of North Carolina Bookstore's Top 10 Bestsellers List on a monthly basis. This will give our customers, as well as other visitors, the opportunity to find out what our readers are buying. Our Top 10 List will also contain links to detailed book descriptions on our website, so visitors can learn more about the key resources that our customers are purchasing. So, let's move on to our March bestsellers list!









March 2007 Top 10 Bestsellers

1. Social Skills Picture Book for High School and Beyond
   
   
2. More Than Words: Helping Parents Promote Communication and Social Skills in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
   
   
3. Preparing for Life: The Complete Guide for Transitioning to Adulthood for Those with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome
   
   
4. Tasks Galore
   
   
5. Tasks Galore for the Real World
   
   
6. Social Skills Picture Book: Teaching Play, Emotion, and Communication to Children with Autism
   
   
7. Hidden Curriculum: Practical Solutions for Understanding Unstated Rules in Social Situations
   
   
8. Social Skills Training for Children and Adolescents with Asperger Syndrome
   
   
9. When My Worries Get Too Big: A Relaxation Book for Children Who Live with Anxiety
   
   
10. TEACCH Transition Assessment Profile (TTAP)